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AD | Is Hemp a Sustainable Fabric?

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Wednesday, 28 September 2022

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When it comes to sustainable choices, fabrics can be a minefield. Polyester seems to be in everything, but brands rarely talk about the fact that this means plastic is one of their most used materials. Cotton is supposed to be good, until you hear about its intense water usage and impact on soil quality. So, what other options are there?

 

Hemp is a bast fibre. That means that it is a fibre derived from the stems of plants, in the case from cannabis. Hemp is a fabric that has been used for thousands of years across the globe to make all kinds of items, including clothing. It has dipped in and out of popularity and at different times even been banned from production. More recently hemp has come back into popularity and is being hailed for its sustainable qualities. But what are those exactly? 


Photo: GeeGee Collection


What makes hemp sustainable?


One of hemp’s biggest strengths is its durability. It is also resistant to fading, so it will keep looking good for longer than other fabrics that fade more easily. If we are aiming for a fashion system where we use our clothes as much as possible for as long as possible, hemp and other durable materials like it are crucial to any new production that takes place.

 

As its non-commercial name suggests, hemp is quite literally a weed. It grows very densely and dominates other plants by growing over them and blocking their light source and using up the other resources available in the same vicinity. This is useful for fabric production as it means that no chemical herbicide is needed to aid hemp’s growth. It is also a natural pesticide, so can be grown completely organically. Using a densely growing plant like hemp also reduces the amount of land needed in the early stages of the supply chain. It is much more land efficient than some other crops. For example, hemp produces double the amount as cotton in the same space while also using around four times less water. This makes it more cost-effective for producers and is beneficial to the environment by consuming fewer resources.

 

Landfills are a huge problem when it comes to fashion. I have written before for Remake and on this blog, waste and waste colonialism are huge issues. Across the globe, billions of garments get thrown away each year. Most of those clothes are made out of plastic (also known as polyester) and can take millions of years to break down and also spread into animals and across the environment through micro-plastics. These create health and safety hazards not only to the planet and the animals who live in it, but disproportionately affect those living near landfill sites. Chemicals, heat and gases that get trapped among the rubbish can cause fires, blocked drains increasing flooding, and spread disease. 

 

Hemp, however, biodegrades much faster than other fabrics. These micro-plastics won’t occur with hemp products. It’s not a solution to waste but if disposed of correctly, it will have a significantly smaller impact than other fabrics. Hemp is also a lot less harmful to the soil it grows in. It returns around 60-70% of nutrients it takes from the soil.

 

Hemp may not be perfect. There are still impacts when it is dyed, the biodegrading process becomes trickier when it is combined with other materials such as polyester (which it doesn’t always need to be), and if it is used to produce the same high quantities of garments fast fashion brands currently do, the damage will still be incredibly high. However, it is still better than others and can be a useful part of creating a slower and kinder fashion landscape. 


Photo: GeeGee Collection

 

Introducing… GeeGee Collection’s Expanded Hemp Range 

 

GeeGee Collection, a small slow fashion brand based in London whom I introduced in my last blog post, are now transitioning to using more hemp in their clothing line. From the end of October, GeeGee are adding to hemp dresses to their collection in addition to the hemp kimono already on sale. 

 

The hemp GeeGee Collection uses is organic and biodegradable to make garments that not only last and look good for a long time, but will also have a kinder afterlife when they are eventually out of use. This is part of the company’s aim to act as a counter-narrative to the current exploitative fast fashion system and to bring slow, sustainable artisan craftsmanship back to the forefront of our fashion culture. 


Photo: GeeGee Collection


If you like my work and have learned something from it, please consider helping support me (so I have more time to write posts and articles like these!) by buying me a virtual cuppa! 


If you liked this post you might like: AD | Meet GeeGee Collection

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AD | Meet GeeGee Collection

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Friday, 9 September 2022

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In July, I went along to the first ever Northern Fashion Week, held in Manchester for 3 days. I had never been to a fashion week event before and I admit I did feel a fair bit of imposter syndrome when I first arrived, but I was excited to see how the event would showcase ethical and sustainable fashion and positive changes in the industry. 

 

After a few minutes looking around, I found GeeGee Collection’s stall and got chatting to Georgia, GeeGee Collection’s founder. She told me about her business – a focus on traditional artisanship and luxury on a small and sustainable scale – and showed me the samples she’d brought with her. After I took a particular fancy to a jacket and short set, Georgia suggested I try them. I got so much joy from trying on that outfit in the toilets of the convention centre, I never wanted to take them off (of course I did in the end, that would have been unfair to Georgia). A pair of shorts has never fit me as well as that pair did. I absolutely adored them and to be honest, many of my conversations since then have been about these shorts. I’m sorry to all my pals who have had to put up with me constantly going on about them…


 

So, Who Are GeeGee Collection?

 

Founded in 2019, GeeGee Collection’s core goal is to bring back traditional artisanship and quality to fashion as a means of moving away from the fast fashion model and its harmful environmental impact. Georgia develops her designs in East London while the fabrics used are handwoven using traditional artisanship in Lyon, France. The clothes are then put together in a sample studio in Shoreditch. 

 

GeeGee work on a non-seasonal basis.  This means that they don’t conform to the trend cycle and don’t have a limited time for product creation and sale, allowing for fewer designs to be sold throughout the year and with less time pressure on the production process. While big fashion brands have sped up this process to incorporate 52 (or more) seasons per year into their business, operating on a non-seasonal basis slows down the production of brands like GeeGee by adding in styles as and when they’re ready, working on bespoke items and focusing on waste reduction. They also do this by looking at ways to make every day clothing staples feel new and creative. I love any way of making my outfits more jazzy - adding colour or cool patterns in there to spice up an otherwise ordinary look. So I love GeeGee’s principle of reinventing wardrobe classics, like blazers and shorts, to make them more exciting and feel more luxurious!


Image: GeeGee Collection

 

In their early days, GeeGee were producing 10 products in size small, five in medium, and 5 in large. Two years later they shifted to cater mostly for size large and then downsize when needed, as they found that more styles were selling in that size. Those numbers seem almost astonishing when we’re used to seeing production figures of thousands, millions or even billions of garments by big fashion brands like H&M, Boohoo, and SheIn (no matter how much they try to convince us that they’re sustainable and ethical). As we know through research such as Remake’s 2021 Accountability Report, small businesses are consistently more sustainable and ethical than big brands. In this report, small and medium businesses scored 37 points on average, compared to 9 points average for big fashion brands – highlighting that smaller businesses are leading the way in sustainable fashion.

 

GeeGee Collection’s first London Fashion Week show is taking place on 9pm 19th September at Soho House, London. This event will include not only a showcase of their clothing line, but also demonstrations using textile looms so that attendees can see for themselves how much time, labour, and skill goes into weaving their fabrics. I am personally very excited to see how this process works! 

 

If you fancy a nose at more of GeeGee Collection’s clothes and what they’ve been up to, you can find their Instagram and website here. And if you ever want to talk to me about the incredible jacket and shorts pair I tried on, I will be more than happy and will probably get slightly over-excited at how cool they are!




If you like my work and have learned something from it, please consider helping support me (so I have more time to write posts and articles like these!) by buying me a virtual cuppa! 


If you liked this post you might like: Where Was Fashion at COP26?

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New Creative Writing & Publishing MA at the University of Lincoln w/ Guardian Live. | #ad

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Friday, 14 September 2018

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Nearly a month ago now, I received an email from the University of Lincoln, inviting me to an upcoming event in London to promote their brand new Creative Writing & Publishing Master’s degree to both fellow academics as well as potential students. 
So, two weeks down the line, my friend Amy and I headed up to London for the day ready to see what it was all about. We had a great time traipsing across the city, eating wonderful vegan food – By Chloe, you forever have my heart – and buying too many books than we needed. At about three in the afternoon, we headed over to King’s Cross where we hung around for a bit before finding the House of Illustration and settling down to hear the speakers. 



After a brief introduction by the Head of Guardian Live, Michael Harris, we heard Associate Culture Editor at the Guardian, Claire Armistead, who we had briefly spoken to at the start of the event, talk about the course. Claire spoke primarily about the changing professional landscape, of how now, and in the future, individuals are becoming more and more likely to have more than one element to their career. This particularly applies to creatives, who are needing to splinter their endeavors in order to make a living. Some examples she gave were creative writers branching out to become ghost writers for celebrities, screen-play doctors, columnists, podcasters, bloggers, journalists… The list goes on, especially with the new platforms which advancing technology has allowed. Leading on from this, she discussed how Lincoln and The Guardian’s new course will be aimed at helping writers adapt to the changing nature of the job market. 

The course itself is honestly incredible. I actually found myself getting a little jealous of everyone who will be able to take part as the speakers discussed it, and if I had already finished my Bachelor’s (which I start in about a week and a half) I would certainly be applying. 

The collaboration with the Guardian has meant that students will attend lectures from prominent writers associated with both organisations, including art historian Andrew Graham Dixon (who gave a speech at the event), Chris Packham, columnist Stuart Heritage and poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy (I had a bit of an ‘OH MY GOD!’ moment when I saw this last name on the list). Much can be gained from each of these writers’ experiences, individual stories and craft. You just need to try to not to freak out if you’re a big fan of their work.

The lectures and workshops themselves are split between The University of Lincoln and the Guardian headquarters in King’s Cross, London, with one workshop every fortnight. This could be awkward if you don’t live near either of these cities, or even if you live near one, so make sure you take into consideration the travel options available to you before applying.



As the department leader Prof. Jason Whittaker highlighted, the course provides a wider knowledge of the ‘interlocking’ aspects of writing: the theory and the practice. Thus, the course focusses equally on the ‘branding’ side of the writing industry, to help you understand the business role as much as improving and refining your writing skills (and these range through a variety of different genres).

As a blogger, I have had to learn about professional presentation, working with brands and promoting myself and my blog in a memorable way through time and experience only. I still feel like an absolute novice in this area nearly 4 years later and to me, that’s a huge part of the appeal of Lincoln’s course. 

Now, I thought I probably ought to let you know a little about the actual nuts and bolts of the course itself: 

The cost of£12,000 for the year sounds very intimidating, and I’m not going to make this post about my views on the current state of tuition fees in the UK because you’d be here for a long time reading me practically shouting through the screen, and I may well end up breaking the keyboard on my laptop. However, there are some scholarships and loans available. The loans are non-means tested, so you’ll get the full amount no matter what. Two scholarships are also available: one for Lincoln alumni and another for anyone who has taken part in a Guardian Masterclass previously. Both of these scholarships provide a reduction to the overall cost of the course. To find out more about finances or any other aspect of the course contact Claire Mann, the postgraduate admissions officer at Lincoln, or take a look at their website here. 

The course begins on the 26ndOctober, so if you’re interested, then you’ll need to make your decision pretty quickly. 

Thank you to everyone at the University of Lincoln (especially Sophie who invited me along to the event and made sure Amy and I felt at ease and welcomed when we arrived) and the Guardian. Hopefully this post has proven helpful to any of you reading. I truly believe that this course is an amazing opportunity which should not be missed if you it interests you and you have the means to take it.

 If you want see more of what Amy and I got up to on our day out, please go over to Amy's YouTube channel to watch her vlog of the day.

If you liked this post you might like: My Advice to New A Level Students

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The Metropolis of Glass by Chloe Lee | Review | #Gifted

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Monday, 14 August 2017

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A while ago, I was sent The Metropolis of Glass by Chloe Lee from the lovely people at Troubador Publishing. I have to admit that I only actually read it last week as my reading for A Levels kind of got in the way. The life of a student blogger, right?


The Metropolis of Glass is a poetry book written by Chloe Lee, a young poet I’d never heard of before. It was an easy read, there’s no doubt about that. I read it in about 3 days, although in actual time it was more like less than two hours. If you’re just getting into poetry, this may be a good place to start; it’s someone unknown (relatively, obviously now you know her name) with easy messages and relatively short (I mean, in comparison to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, for example). I personally found Lee’s poetry a bit frustrating due to those reasons, however.


I found this poetry collection to be, I hate to say it, average at best. Nothing shocked me, no lines struck me at my core, made me think about something I’d never thought to think about before or brought me back to a certain point in my life. I found it annoying that the meanings were so blatant and didn’t initially spark much further thought. The meanings of the poems I found quite annoying as well, I mean there’s nothing necessarily better about a non-digitalised world, just saying. Many of the poems had a similar tone. This becomes increasingly obvious with each listed triad of either nouns, adjectives, verbs or adverbs (only one type of word at a time) in practically every poem. This just gets boring after a while. I can cope with that kind of listing in one poem but when it becomes the poet’s trademark I just start rolling my eyes each time I see one list.

Okay, rant over.



It was a fairly easy read so I would recommend it if you’re looking for some easy to understand poetry. If you’re looking for something more advanced and well crafted, then maybe look somewhere else. I will continue to look out for Lee’s work, probably more in the hope that I can read something that is an improvement on this (sorry Chloe Lee if you’re reading this).

If you liked this post you might like: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote | Review

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Emotions of a Book by Guido Parisi | Review | #Gifted

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Monday, 13 March 2017

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Late last year, the lovely people at Troubador publishing sent me a copy of Emotions of a Book by Guido Parisi, a book described as ‘Dialogue Between a Blank Book and a Potential Author.’ As a writer and potential author myself (I finished the first draft of my first novel last year and seem to be constantly writing down notes and scraps of poetry), I was intrigued.


Parisi begins with exactly what the book is described as. The first section is the main part of the conversation, although it is dotted throughout the book. I do have to admit that the dialogue sections could be quite confusing due to the fact that each line of speech was bullet pointed rather than more traditional methods of paragraphing and speech marks, and I kept getting mixed up as to who was actually speaking, which didn’t help with my engagement with the book as I spent more time worrying about who was talking rather than what was being said.


The stories at the beginning and their different aspects felt a lot more disjointed at the beginning of the book, but then evened out quite nicely as it progressed, coming down to the two main narratives: the first, of Albert, a young German boy who moves back to his home country from America and joins the Hitler Youth, and the second, of Mike, an English professor at a Canadian university managing a student production of Romeo and Juliet. I found both characters and their circumstances very interesting, though personally I was drawn more to Mike. I think that was more because I liked his character more – I really did not like Albert as a person, although he was a very good character, with many layers and aspects to him. I think Mike’s story is perhaps the more enjoyable one and is definitely the one that most people will be more comfortable reading, but for me, I loved it as I suppose I could relate more to the character and had personal interests reflected in his story: I am an English student, I love history, I have personally been to Verona and the area surrounding (a place featured in the latter part of the book) and loved Mike’s discussions about poetry with his friend.


Parisi is a very eloquent writer. I loved the way he used language and created the different voices for each character – whether that was Albert, Mike, the Book, the Potential Author or Julia and Agnese. I think the characters, and the way they came alive, is the main strength of this book.

 Going into it, I thought that I would perhaps be offered some specific writing advice – technical ways to improve and edit the way I write. Although that was not necessarily the case, I think the overall message of the book when it comes to writing is to just write. To not make excuses and just sit down to write if you want to write. A valuable piece of advice if ever I saw one.



If you liked this post you might like: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote | Review

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A London Trip w/ Eventbrite

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Friday, 29 July 2016

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Since I finished school, I’ve had plenty of spare time on my hands. While I was in school I’d already  heard of some of the amazing plans many of my classmates had. I wanted to get out of my house - away from the FRIENDS box sets - and actually, do something. I started to get serious FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). I mean you’ve just got to look at some of my Pinterest boards to realise that I pine after places that are still unknown to me. 


As part of my efforts to GOMO (Go Out More Often, a campaign started by Eventbrite to end FOMO) this summer, my nan and I took a 3 day trip to London this week. 

We arrived on Monday morning. After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we went to Garfunkel’s for an early lunch. Their breakfast menu was still just about running, so I had some of their pancakes which were marvellous! We then headed to Foyles bookshop - one of my absolute favourite places! We spent hours in there and in the end I bought 3 books and for me, that shows a lot of self-control. Using my London Pass I also received a free book, which is never a bad thing!



That night, we had tickets booked for Kenneth Branagh's production of Romeo and Juliet, however, as there was no one to play Romeo as both the lead and understudy were injured, the showing was cancelled. Nonetheless, we sought out another show to see instead. Mamma Mia! was on and we managed to get some of the last tickets to see it. It was such an incredible show! I’ve been singing ABBA songs constantly ever since. 


On Tuesday, we got up early and then headed over to Shakespeare’s Globe via a tour bus. It’s safe to say that I completely nerded out. As a general literary geek, you can imagine my excitement. We were taken on a guided tour of the Globe, which was fascinating! The atmosphere in the theatre was amazing, I can imagine that seeing a play there would be just spectacular.



After a quick lunch, we took the bus to Westminster Abbey. We took an audio tour and it was so interesting. I saw the tomb of Elizabeth I, Mary I and Mary Queen of Scots which I loved! I love their stories and that whole era, so it was great to see them. The tombs of Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots were opposite each other and equally grand, which I thought was hilarious. Poet’s Corner was also really cool - they had so many people there that I’d read or been recommended, including a plaque to my beloved Jane Austen.


In the afternoon we headed over to the Royal Albert Hall. Again, we went on a tour and it was fascinating. It’s an amazing building and we were able to hear some of the rehearsals for that night’s prom, meaning that we heard parts of a new piece before its official premiere! We had a lovely meal in one of the hall’s restaurants and decided to try and get tickets for that night’s Prom! We managed to get tickets off to the side but still had a great view - particularly of the soloist Ray Chen, who performed the violin concerto No.1 in G minor by Bruch incredibly. I was actually mesmerised. The audience gave him a huge round of applause and then he returned and performed another piece, this time on his own. It’s fair to say that my first prom was unforgettable.


Wednesday, we went to Hampton Court Palace. Again, as a History nerd, this was like heaven for me. We didn’t get to go everywhere as we didn’t have enough time. It was fantastic seeing the places that I had read about for years and finding out new facts about the stories I already knew so much about. 


On Monday we had rearranged our Romeo and Juliet tickets to the performance on Wednesday but weren’t hopeful that we would be seeing it. The Wednesday show was still on, to our surprise, and we saw a brilliant performance. I actually got chills at the end. I laughed more than I had expected to (I mean, it’s Romeo and Juliet, there “never was a story of more woe”.) I have to say that one of the standout performances was Derek Jacobi’s Mercutio. Absolutely brilliant.



London is full of so many events and I’ve had such a great few days exploring the city and finding out more about what it has to offer. 

To learn more about Eventbrite’s campaign to end FOMO, to plan your own event and track RSVPs online or to find out about events near you, click here and make sure to tell me about your plans to GOMO this summer! 





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