HEMP HEADS MAINSTREAM

Heather Heron wants people to know hemp fabric is about so much more
than those gaudy-looking, rough, hooded shirts for sale in
environmental shops. "They're making so many beautiful blends of it,"
she said, "you wouldn't know the difference between that and a really
beautiful piece of linen."

The 34-year-old Ottawa native was back in her hometown from California
over the holidays, holding a trunk show for her spring/summer 2008
eco-chic handbag line.

Heron uses organic European hemp, hemp-silk blends, and other
ecologically sound fabrics to make her bags, which have been carried
by everyone from Reese Witherspoon to pal and fellow Ottawa native
Alanis Morissette.

"I'm just really excited to show them," she says, "because so many of
these fabrics are so new, and they're not shown to the
mainstream."

Heron's designs have been available in select American shops, and
through the online site www.greenwithglamour.com. But she just landed
her first Canadian store: Finn Boutique, in Toronto's Yorkville.

Interest in such eco-fashion seems set to explode, and like Heron,
Canadians in the industry are playing a major role in propelling it.

Julia Roberts has dressed her daughter Hazel in Fig Organic Kids
Fashion, an offshoot of Twice Shy. The Whistler, B.C.-based company,
started by Canadians Jen MacCormack and Michael Ziff, is dedicated to
using certified organically grown cotton.

In September, fashion publicist Kelly Drennan, of Third Eye Media,
organized an eco-fashion fundraising gala before Toronto Fashion Week.

She chose 10 Canadian designers and charged them with making couture
out of fabrics made from soy, hemp, bamboo and organic cotton.

Six of those designers have since placed eco-friendly fabric orders
for their fall 2008 collections, says Drennan. She is further
spreading the word by choosing a new roster for the second show, now
planned as an annual event, in June.

"For me, anyway, it started with the designer, getting the fabric into
the hands of the designer," said Drennan. "And getting them used to
working with the fabric and seeing how easy and gorgeous the garments
could be."

There are many reasons for the current push to eco-fashion, says Rick
Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based
group which partnered with Drennan on September's show.

Cotton, for example, is very tough on the Earth.

"It uses up a lot of water, it also requires a lot of pesticides," he
said.

Alternatively, bamboo and hemp are "incredible, resilient plants that
don't need a lot of care."

Pesticide residues can linger in fabrics, says Smith, who adds it's
not uncommon for manufacturers to also apply "weird and toxic
substances" to clothes.

For example, he explained, flame retardants are frequently coated on
kids' clothes, and those have been found to be bioaccumulative,
meaning they stay in the body because they aren't susceptible to its
normal breakdown processes.

And he says much of what is labelled "wrinkle-resistant" has most
likely been treated with formaldehyde.

"Not good," says Smith.

A lot of people are jumping on the eco-fashion bandwagon right now but
Lisa Tant, editor-in-chief of Flare magazine, sees this as a lasting
trend which will take more than one or two seasons to take hold.

"People really are interested. They want to make a difference," she
said.

"And fashion is such a form of self-expression, it's one of the best
places to do it."