Due to numerous stigmas surrounding the herb marijuana, hemp fabric has been a tough sell in the fashion market until just recently. Though “industrial hemp” is legal to use in the US, growing it is not. Hemp fabric is generally imported to the US by China, Hungary, Thailand, Romania and Chile. The farming of hemp requires no pesticides or herbicides, requires little water, and actually helps clear soil of toxins by a process called “phytoremediation,” making it far superior to cotton production. As sustainability struts to the forefront of fashion, designers have started taking note of this fiber, once thought of as the type of material found in flour sacks, not Sak’s Fifth Avenue.

During the California Gold Rush of the 1850′s, this extremely durable fabric was used for the very first pair of jeans by Levi Strauss. Even with all the cultivation challenges, hemp still makes its way into plenty of American closets today. Simple, Adidas, and New Balance are using this strong, biodegradable material for their super fly sneaker styles. Eco fashion lines like Habitude and Mountains Of The Moon have sexy,

sophisticated dresses and tops of hemp and silk blends. Recent collections by fashion giants Armani and Dolce & Gabbana have featured fiercely taylored hemp suits. Green bag designers Helen E. Riegle and GreenOne utilize this fabric for their handbags and totes, and emerging brands like Hoodlamb are using uber warm hemp-based fake fur in their urban wear.

Though the DEA may still find the use of industrial hemp controversial, the eco fashion world has embraced it for its durability, not its smokability.

Treehugger has interviewed Kate Fletcher, a highly respected pioneer in the eco-fashion industry about her new book, Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys. According to Treehugger, she has worked on developing sustainability in fashion and textiles since the early 1990′s, she is widely published on the topics of ecodesign in fashion and textiles, she has advised many well well known eco labels, including: Marks and Spencer, Chelsea College of Art & Design, People Tree, Intermediate Technology Development Group and The Salvation Army. Kate has also deep dived into the topic on her own via her pet projects 5 Ways, Demi, and The Perfect T-shirt. Most recently, she published her first book, ‘Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys‘, which hit shelves earlier this year. The book grapples with the importance and complexity of eco-fashion from the ground up (literally) and takes our understanding of this subject to new levels. Read the interview here. You can also read TH’s review of Kate’s book here. Kate also consulted extensively for a group called Leaf Certified, (you will not be able to view their site yet until they go live) a group Greenloop will be working with very closely in near future. Stay tuned!

Though I have yet to meet her, I think Kate Fletcher and I have long been on the same page. When I founded Greenloop, before I even knew Kate was out there, I did it based on the notion that fashion can be a powerful vehicle for change and market based environmental advocacy. It is a highly visible, accessible way to start a conversation about a topic that is a part of our every day lives and self expression. Wear it. Share it. Give it. Talk about it. It’s working…

It is with a heavy heart (though FAR from a discouraged one) that I share with you, and I am sure I am not the first, that Nau, Portland based sustainable retailer, announced on Friday, May 2nd, just 14 months after launching the business, that they will be ceasing operations. Read below for more details from the Oregonian.

May 2, 2008:

Portland-based retailer Nau closes after 14 months

“Shortly before noon on Friday, the Portland company posted on its Web site a statement, ‘Goodbye for Nau,’ indicating it was ceasing operations. In near indignant language, company officials blamed its failure not on its ambitious business plan but on tight U.S. credit markets

‘At this time, investors are loath to invest in anything; especially, it appears, a company like Nau that has the audacity to challenge conventional paradigms of what a business should be,’ the statement said.

Industry experts and local venture capitalists said the company also suffered from a flawed business model and possibly missteps along the way. Nau‘s plans, mostly rooted in the name of environmental stewardship, ate through lots of cash, required an ambitious rollout of stores and relied on consumers to change their shopping habits, critics said.

Its closure casts a pall on Portland’s drive to be a leader in sustainable business practices, something Nau had come to symbolize nationally.

‘It’s not a good day for Oregon, actually, said Mike Edwards, former CEO of Portland-based apparel retailer Lucy Activewear. ‘Portland is the activewear apparel capital globally. A lot of new companies are moving in to take advantage of that labor pool. We don’t need to scare them.’

In an interview, Nau vice president for marketing Ian Yolles declined to say how much Nau fell short of its fundraising goals. The closure will eventually put 60 people at Nau‘s headquarters in the Pearl District out of work. It also employs 35 in its five stores, which include one opened less than two weeks ago in Los Angeles.

‘It doesn’t mean the ideas we’re associated with are unattainable and it doesn’t mean they aren’t important,’ Yolles said. ‘There’s an urgency for businesses to operate in a way that demonstrates leadership to a sustainable future. But it is a very sad day.’

To celebrate Earth Day 2008, the most recognized and trumpeted Earth Day in history, In The Loop would like to encourage you to turn your computers off, stand up, and walk outside. Walk until you feel like you’re inside nature, however long that takes you. Fly free people. We are not machines. We are born of this place, from a womb, not an assembly line. Get out there and love this place. Nature is your home too.

“There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness.” Gandhi

In honor of Earth Day 2008, Greenloop begged the question of eco fashion: Are we making a difference? This series continues with this response from Wendy Tremayne, creator of Swap-O-Rama-Rama(who we featured in an earlier article on In The Loop dedicated to greening your closet). Swap-o-rama-rama is a traveling clothing swap and do-it-yourself workshop in which various communities explore creative reuse through by turning their old used clothing into fabulous new creations. Wendy is of course a champion of DIY culture and these are excerpts from the insightful thoughts she wanted to share for Earth Day 2008…

...Less than a hundred years ago things were quite different. What people owned is what they created or what someone they knew created for them. Imbued with the stories of our lives our material goods embodied our creativity and spoke of our community. Before the industrial revolution objects were not likely be tossed to the trash like the heaps of plastic that line our streets and overload landfills today. These objects were made of sacred stuff, the energy and intention of people. You could say that one difference between 100 years ago and today is that 100 years ago we were all makers, that is we made the objects that filled the landscape of our material existence. In less than 100 years we’ve lost sight of the discovery that the making of things is not an activity to be avoided in order to attain leisure, but rather a playful and leisurely endeavor unto itself. Naturally when we are makers we are part of communities of people connected through the history of ideas and even the natural world from which all of our materials arise. No maker can exist on their own.

Knowledge, teaching and the sharing and collectivizing of ideas are inherent in the creative process. The maker learns that every craft and skill tells a story that involves the evolution of an idea that leads to this moment in time. Time collapses and we sit face to face with our brothers and sisters of the past. If we look back far enough we see our materials as they come from the planet in the form of raw material. From here a maker can see that we can never really take credit for the creation of anything as we are never independent of this history or the earth – the ultimate and only real maker…

WhoWhatWearDaily.com has put together this entertaining little video clip on what to wear…Eco-style. They pull from a couple of dedicated eco-designers like EcoSkin and Linda Loudermilk, but the majority of their picks come from mainstream, conventional designers offering a few eco-options mixed with conventional (read: non-green) items. Being completely submerged in the world of eco-apparel and accessories, to me, it seems just silly to pull anything but dedicated brands for a piece like this. That said, I have to realize that the average shopper may need to be eased in to the world of sustainable style, and this is not a bad way to do it….mix the familiar with the unfamiliar. Add to that the fact that eco-brands are not always easy to find (Hint: Shop ONLINE!) it makes their approach a little easier to understand. While I prefer to support designers that are green from the ground up, I do have to applaud at least token efforts to green up the operations of traditionally un-green collections. Now lets just hope those small steps inspire them to embrace sustainable design all the way around.