It seems that in the race to be the most stylish and trendily dressed, we are ignoring the damage we are doing to the environment. Even here, the solution lies in nature, but we don't always pay attention. Plants are known for their medicinal properties, but did you know that many kinds of plants, fruits, and flowers are now being used in fabrics too? One of them is hemp - a species of Cannabis Sativa. Hemp was legalised to be cultivated in Uttarakhand in 2018, and is now used in medicines, body care products, cooking oil, protein bars, and other 50,000 known uses of hemp. Today, we are focusing on the fabric.
India shares a long history with hemp. The traditional use of the plant stretches back to thousands of years, with its origins in Ayurveda. Hemp is sustainable, environment-friendly, and can grow in any climate. Despite being so versatile, hemp still has a very unidimensional and undesirable reputation.
However, there are several brands that are now using this very plant to make sustainable fabric. One of them is 'Aslee'. As the name suggests, Aslee works to make a real impact by keeping it real. Founded by Zoya Wahi and Nitij Singh, Aslee is all about sustainable fashion from sustainable materials. But it's not just another brand promoting sustainability, it's a brand that is actually practising sustainability by helping local communities grow hemp.
Talking about her brand 'Aslee', co-founder Zoya Wahi said,
Aslee came into being from what was initially a philanthropic effort. Nitij, who is my co-founder, was living in Nepal at the time of the deadly Nepal earthquake and I was about to visit him when there was massive destruction and devastation in the country. Our initial conversation started with doing something for the community there and helping them with rehabilitation. We figured out a fundraising effort that we could do using local products made by the local artisans and then sort of selling that to our community of friends, family members, people we know and generally people at large to raise some funds for them to rebuild. Through that effort, we realised that the community is doing some great work with some sustainable products and there is a way to provide them sustained income by using those same products. So, from what was initially just purely a philanthropic sort of setup, Aslee was born in its current form as a business.
Let's talk about how hemp is the future of the fashion industry. Being an extremely viable fabric, not only does it increases the fertility of the soil, it has other advantages too. Talking about the environmental benefits of hemp, Zoya said,
The water table across the world is decreasing. There is a lot of chemical usage so in that sense hemp is a great fabric because one- it does not need a lot of water to grow, and two - it grows without any chemicals. It can really help local economies expand business by growing this for industrial use. Hemp is something that certain communities have been working with for ages. So, it is proven to sustain through the ages, through different climates, through different water tables, to still give a yield that will be sort of productive and financially beneficial. Apart from being sustainable, these fabrics are also very easy to grow. So, at a community level, they are very lucrative for the farming community. The other thing is that these fabrics grow without chemicals. So, that makes it better for the farmers to farm anything else at a later date or continue to keep farming these. The fabric in itself has some great properties.
But it's not just hemp. The Himalayas are truly a treasure box for vegetation and plant life. One of those plants is the common stinging nettle. Fibres from the bark of the plant can be extracted to make fabric. Nettle is considered to be a carbon-neutral fibre with no wastage and it can be as versatile as hemp. Giving out more details about Nettle and how it is used, Zoya said,
Nettle is one of the strongest fibres that you will come across. It lasts very long. So, there is no reason for these fabrics not to be alternatives to the things that we have been using currently and abusing almost by overusing them. For Himalayan Nettle, we directly work with the community that produces the fabric. In Uttarakhand, Nepal this plant is grown, where the community goes to the forest to forage the plant. They collect it. It is then put through a process of washing and then treating with caustic soda from where the fibres are removed. This fibre is then spun into thread and the thread is knit into different sorts of products. So, it is not overly processed fabric and sometimes it is dyed using natural dyes, sometimes we use it in the natural colors that it is available in.
It's not just about using sustainable materials to produce sustainable fabric, Aslee also works towards supporting the local community in Nepal and Uttarakhand by ensuring fair wages. Zoya said,
We work with a small community of makers, mainly employing women in under-serviced areas where we sort of try and give them a stable livelihood. So, we procure only from these factories that have basic set criteria that make these people's lives liveable, pay them fair wages and work with all sorts of products that are not harmful to their skin, their livelihood, their everyday well-being and that is how we sort of support the community.
Aslee sources most of its material from Bhartiya Gramotthan Sanstha, an organisation founded in 1989 by PM Chandola. Not only is Bhartiya Gramotthan Sanstha giving employment opportunities to women but is also promoting handwork and plant-based fibres for textile fabrics. Continue reading about the organisation here.
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