COMMENT

Sustainable fashion the renaissance of hemp

There are very few people in the fashion world on a mission to educate and
make a difference. Most are content to leave that to politicians and
activists. Nigel Glasgow, however, is banging his own drum, and it's made
of hemp. Melanie Rickey reports.

The streetwear designer Glasgow has found a unique way of raising awareness
in what he describes as "looking behind the veneer" of fashion and making
consciously produced clothes that don't look hippyfied, but urban.

His company, Urban Poison, was one of the first to use industrial hemp
after the Home Office granted a licence for growing the weed in 1993. He
spent the two years following its reintroduction learning about its
properties, and discovering new ways to manufacture it as a fabric.
Glasgow's aim was to develop a fashion forward range beyond "brown rice"
sensibilities. There are no "stoned again" Tshirts, hempleaf prints or
clothes made from what looks like a sackcloth material; Urban Poison
clothes are modern/functional.

There are only six styles of jacket and trouser in eight basic, bright
colours and two types of fabric hemp denim and hemp drill. Standard
fivepocket jeans, frayededge jeans, combat pants, jackets and Tshirts
make up the current collection. He is also working on new combinations for
women's clothes by mixing silk and possibly Lycra with hemp. "We've had a
very good reaction; the public are beginning to understand that hemp is a
positive product." Glasgow wants to make lip balm, shampoo and apothecary
products, too.

One good thing about Urban Poison clothes is that wearing them can quite
feasibly lead to a conversation of the "not many people know that" variety.
As a fabric, hemp was more popular than cotton until the Thirties, when
large manufacturers muscled in on the market, and in 1971 hemp production
was banned altogether in the UK under the Misuse of Drugs Act. It doesn't
need agrochemicals to grow it, and it can sprout up to 4 metres in 12
weeks. In fact, the first Levi's jeans were made from the hemp fibre
because its tensile strength is three to four times that of cotton. It is
also warmer, softer, and more waterabsorbent.

Glasgow believes that hemp is a product for the future, and he wants
everyone to know it. In his advertising and on his labels he puts
23122012, the date when, he believes, the world's consciousness will
change. Apparently it is when the earth will complete the move into the Age
of Aquarius; by then, he hopes we will all be wearing hemp.