Weekday, a Swedish fashion company owned by fashion giant H&M, is shaking up the fashion industry with their hemp derived denim line.
Sustainability
One question many have is, why use hemp? Well, H&M has set a goal for itself as an organization. That is to completely reduce their emission and waste by 2040 and become a completely self-sustaining company. Since the announcement of their sustainability act in 2019, H&M has boosted their energy efficiency by 31 percent and increased renewable source usage by 24 percent.
In addition to H&M becoming more sustainable as a company, the products they use are sustainable as well. This includes hemp, which is an incredible and sustainable plant option that has been growing for more than 8,000 years. Hemp plants themselves are pest and disease resistant and conserve water storage. Companies are turning towards hemp based products because of the sustainability properties of hemp over other common crops like cotton. Depending on how the hemp based denim does in this upcoming collection from Weekday, H&M has said that they would potentially look into incorporating hemp based products into their standard line of clothing alongside their organic and fair trade cotton.
How did this limited edition line even come about? Weekday offers a workshop area for artists and designers called Weekday’s Studio Made. This space is to allow for ultimate creativity while also using sustainable products, vintage material, or even food waste.
Product Line
Experimenting with hemp based denim was only the beginning. Artists and designers took their clothing and used peels from pomegranates, avocados, and red onions. Then they placed them into various dye baths with rust, alum, copperas, salt, and vinegar to see the results. These baths usually lasted a week, but sometimes went longer to see what long exposure could do to hemp clothes and food waste.
Many items had great colors and patterns, but none of the clothes were identical, making for an uncontrolled process. For example, onions only work on clothes for about a day before they lose their potency. Avocados turn pink after a while and pomegranate and copperas combined together to create a pitch black color that drowns out any other colors or products used in the same bath. If this line is successful and Weekday looks to create more, they will need to create a consistent process for similar products to be produced in mass quantities.
Weekday expects this limited edition and hemp derived denim line to sell out within minutes, like many of the other limited series. The clothes are European underground grunge style that seems to be up and coming with younger fashion designers. Whether the clothes trend stays is unknown, but the usage of hemp is a step in the right direction and creates promise for the future. This limited edition line is set to release on March 4, 2021.
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