HEMP CLOTHES MAY SOW SEEDS OF NEW INDUSTRY

LEBANON, KY - Seamstresses at a small sewing factory in a rural Kentucky
town made history recently as they stitched together 350 shirts that are
being touted as "the first industrial hemp clothing ever made commercially
in Kentucky."

The men's casual/dress shirts, which are being marketed by the new Kentucky
Industrial Hemp Association, Inc., hit the racks last month in shops across
the country.

"We've already gotten orders from stores in Kentucky, Tennessee, Oregon,
Missouri and New York," said Craig Lee, executive director of the
association, which formed last summer. "We know there is a big market for
hemp clothing."

Heather Gifford, a fashion designer, apparel merchandiser and the
association's president, said the group plans to create more hemp clothing,
including women's blouses, safari-style jackets and pants. "Hemp is a
really great fabric because it's durable and yet very comfortable," she said.

The association's members support the legalization of industrial hemp in
Kentucky and say they decided to start a line of apparel made from hemp
fabric imported from China to prove there is a market for hemp products.

Retailers agree that the popularity of hemp clothing is booming. Hemptech,
a California consulting firm that tracks the industry, expects worldwide
sales of hemp products to reach $200 million this year and $600 million by
2001.

"The demand for hemp products is increasing every day," said Rob Moseley,
the association's vice president and owner of Kentucky Hemp Outfitters, a
Louisville shop that sells everything from hemp shoes to hemp/silk-blend
evening gowns.

The association's shirts are available for $49.95 at Moseley's shop at
Bardstown Road and Eastern Parkway.

The hemp shirts will also be sold at Planet Hemp, an upscale specialty
store and catalog company in New York City.

John Howell, managing director of Planet Hemp, said his company is "pleased
to be working with the association and looking forward to getting even more
hemp merchandise from Kentucky."

The demand for many hemp products exceeds the supply, Howell said. "We're
always scrambling for suppliers," he said. "When we started this company
just over a year ago, we wanted to prove there is a market for hemp. We've
found out there is definitely a big market."

To create the shirts, the association hired American Sewing Technology,
Inc., a small Lebanon, Ky. firm that sews specialty apparel for companies
across the United States.

Rita Evanoff, one of the factory's owners, said working with the
association "seems like a natural partnership because we sew items for
companies that want to be able to say their products are made in the
U.S.A....that is our niche."

Evanoff said she hopes the association is "successful selling these shirts
so we can make more items for them."

The seamstresses at the plant, many of whom began working at American
Technologies after being laid off from other sewing factories, are "excited
about working on something new," said Denise Mattingly, a New Haven
resident who works at the plant.

"I think it's great they're trying to create jobs," she said. "We hope to
get to sew more clothes like this. The hemp material was easy to work with."

Lee said the workers at the factory "are a part of history now. With their
help, we can prove that industrial hemp, which was once a major cash crop
in Kentucky, can once again aid rural economic development." With the
recent layoffs and plant closings by Fruit of the Loom and other garment
manufacturers in Kentucky, Lee said, "this area needs jobs that would use
the skills those laid-off workers have....making hemp clothes would fit
right in with what this area needs and has the ability to offer."

Although the first 350 shirts were made from imported fabric, the
association's eventual goal is to make clothes from hemp grown in Kentucky.

"Hemp was once a major crop in this state, but it was used mostly for rope,
cordage and seeds for other states," explained Lee. "Hemp clothing has
never been made commercially here - until now." Industrial hemp, sometimes
called "marijuana's misunderstood cousin," is grown in Asia, Europe and
Canada as a source for fiber for fabric, twine and paper.

Kentucky, with its struggling tobacco economy, is one of about 15 states
where advocates are trying to get the plant legalized. Kentucky hemp
advocates, including actor/environmentalist Woody Harrelson, scored a legal
victory last summer when a district judge in Eastern Kentucky declared the
state's marijuana law unconstitutionally broad because it lumps hemp with
marijuana, which contains a much larger amount of the psychoactive
substance, THC.

Harrelson's case, in which he planted four hemp seeds in Lee County and was
charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession, soon will be heard by the
Kentucky Supreme Court, and hemp proponents see that as a good sign.

"There's a chance it could be legal to grow hemp here within the next few
years, and it's important that we show farmers that money and products can
be made with it," Lee said. "Farmers and other people have to realize there
is a market for industrial hemp, and that it can help create jobs and boost
the economy."

© 1998 The Courier-Journal