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Global warming has meant a change in the way we approach clothes shopping. Cannabis Wealth speaks to Gav Lawson about hemp and sustainable clothing.
Consumers are looking for more alternatives to traditional fabrics such as cotton, which has resulted in a rise in hemp clothing. Hemp has had a fashionable make-over since its early days and is now widely used in skinny jeans, soft t-shirts, sunglasses and even lingerie.
Gav Lawson became interested in hemp clothing when he was studying at University which has shaped his career in the garment industry. His brand, THTC offers comfortable, stylish and soft hemp t-shirts, socks and other garments. He has been in the clothing industry for 22 years and has seen the progress of the fabric. His brand, THTC has, over the years, also produced hemp sweaters, hoodies, caps, belts, wallets and polo shirts, and will be doing so again in the coming months and years.
“We wanted to bring hemp to the high street in whatever format. We didn’t know if we were going to produce clothing, food or cosmetics at first. We decided on clothing and went on to develop a full range of hemp denim, t-shirts and all sorts from Romania. Then we cut it back to focus mainly on T-shirts,” he said.
Hemp hasn’t always been an easy fabric to work with. Although Gav highlights that technological advances have made a huge difference to the industry in recent years allowing it to be made into softer, more fashion-forward clothing.
He said: “It’s much easier now than it was. We were really enthusiastic about our first range and samples but it was pretty rough. You had to be really into hemp or saving the world to buy it then.
Gav had strong ties with the music industry which proved to be the perfect way to give hemp a bit of street credibility and appeal to younger more trend-focused customers. THTC has just launched a collection with the band, UB40. For the last 4 years, THTC has been producing band merch for reggae legends UB40.
He explained: “We were all into hip hop, drum and bass so we aligned ourselves with the underground music scene and made it cool. I wanted to create something that looked and felt as close to cotton as possible so that people wanted to buy it because it was cool and not just environmentally sound.
The fabrics have come a long way but they are still quite expensive when compared to manmade synthetic fibres and cotton. There is one main mill in China that produces the vast majority of textiles and they really know what they are doing. Some of the fabrics that are coming out now are absolutely beautiful.”
There has been an increase in the number of alternative fabrics on the market. Companies, in particular, start-ups, have experimented with fabric made from natural materials such as nettles, bananas or pineapples instead of leather. There are also a number of brands using recycled material such as plastic water bottles to produce clothing.
However, there are still ways for brands to exploit the sustainable label of hemp or bamboo by using chemicals designed to cheap the process. Labelling may be one way of determining what the product is made from but it may not always be clear at first glance.
While we are conscious about the chemicals we intake through food or genetically modified crops, we often do not consider our clothing. Our skin can absorb different chemicals that are present on our clothing such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) which have been linked to kidney or testicular cancers. These chemicals can be found in clothing that has been treated to be stain or water-resistant.
Phthalates are another dangerous chemical found in our clothing. In a study conducted by Greenpeace, researchers sampled more than 140 items of clothing and found phthalates in 31 pieces. This included t-shirts and underwear from high street brands that phthalates accounted for up to 38 per cent of their weight.
Gav said: “There are still cheap ways to produce hemp like with viscose. Bamboo viscose is cheap to produce but not particularly ethical or environmental. Although bamboo grows very quickly and without requiring pesticides, the process of turning it into viscose can require over 120 different chemicals, including carbon disulfide and sodium hydroxide. Only between 15 per cent to 25 per cent of the final fabric can actually be called bamboo.”
He added: “Labelling can be very misleading. For example, you can focus on how bamboo is fantastic for the environment and that it uses less water, how fast it grows and that you don’t need chemicals when it is growing. What they may not mention is although that is true, when turning it into a fabric, if you use the closed-loop technique then it means you retain more than 99 per cent of the chemicals. However, it’s still preferable to producing stuff from nylon or producing anything from petroleum.
The vast majority of the world’s bamboo viscose comes from China, India and Indonesia, where regulations about water treatment are often lax. If the chemicals are poured into local water supplies this can be catastrophic for the health of people and wildlife.”
The environmental benefits of growing hemp have been suggested as a way to cut Britain’s carbon footprint to meet our 2050 targets. Hemp is a bioaccumulate plant so it absorbs carbon from the air and soil as it grows. It also uses a lot less water than cotton and other crops.
Gav said: “Hemp doesn’t need a lot of water to be grown compared with cotton. It’s grown everywhere and it’s really entrenched in our lives where people do not appreciate the costs of one cotton T-shirt. The whole fast fashion model of buying something then throwing it away after a few washes is a real problem. It takes about 2500 litres of freshwater to grow enough cotton to produce one t-shirt. Hemp uses between 10 to 20 per cent of water but it is still comparatively expensive, partially because not as much is being grown.
Switching to hemp means you are consuming less because the fabric is more durable and lasts longer. We try to encourage people to buy less which doesn’t make a lot of business sense but from a planetary view, it does. The fashion industry creates more CO2 than aviation and maritime shipping combined.”
When THTC first started, Gav, sourced hemp from all over the world. He noted that now laws are changing, it is starting to appear in Europe which may have an effect on it becoming cheaper in the long term.
“When we first started the brand, we sourced hemp in Romania, then we switched to Nepal and then we moved to China. The vast majority of hemp textiles are produced in China. Now that laws are changing, hemp is beginning to be grown in Eastern Europe, Germany and the US. The Chinese refused to ban hemp and cannabis from their production when the Americans put through the marijuana tax act in the 1930s. So they have carried on growing it for far longer and as a result, they are so far ahead.”
He added: “An increase in environmental awareness is changing people’s attitudes. In the first ten years, when I was trying to sell the range to shops as an ethical brand, they would say it wasn’t for them because they had preconceptions of what being an ethical brand meant. This was before you even mentioned hemp.”
THTC has a long history of using prints and clothing to make politically and culturally aware statements and satire. Their eye-catching clothing aims to get people to stop and think. Gav stressed that green movements making it into the mainstream are a positive thing as it has forced companies to raise their standards. However, not all companies are compliant. So is it getting any better?
Gav explained: “The things we have been shouting about for over 20 years are really coming home to roost. People remember that THTC was one of the original pioneers of hemp fashion. Now fashion is not just fashion but it has to be seen to be caring. A lot of big brands don’t and spend a lot of PR to look green as opposed to actually doing anything to improve the welfare standard in the factories in which they produce.”
