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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1996)
Hemp sprouts up as fashion for the politically motivated By Mark Baldridge Staff Reporter In the world of “high” fashion, it’s not what you wear so much as the socio-economic meaning of what you wear. It’s the politics of hip. Today’s cco-conscious, sustain able-mania, counterculture pop needs hemp. Hemp is all the rage. And everyone wants in on the act, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, even Adidas—whose cponymously named sneaker “The Hemp” soon will be avail able in stores. Hempsocks, pullovers, shirts,over alls and underoos arc sprouting up all over. But don’t get paranoid, this hemp is a perfectly legal import from Hungary. Hungary and China arc two of the largest prtiduccrs of industrial grade hemp in the world. They even print their money on it. Those tempted to roll upand smoke a couple thousand yuan (the unit of Chinese currency) should beware: This hemp is “non-mcdicinal.” According to Jennifer Edwards — owner and proprietor of Hemp Fields at 1211 OSt., “The grade of hemp they get fiber from eontains sueh minute levels of THC (the chemical that gets you “stoned”) that you couldn’t get high smoking a whole field.” “It’s the same genus as pot plants, different species,” she said. And if fashion evolution is the sur vival of what fits, cannabinaccac has strong “survival value.” Eight times stronger than cotton, hemp is also softer, more insulating and more absorbent than the King of the South. In fact, hemp may be the oldest cash crop known to humankind. Primi tive ape-like farmers might have been stylin’ in hemp loincloths as early as 8,000 B.C. ' And that trend continued well into the 20th century ... until the 1930s when strong campaigning by media mogul (and newspaper monopolist) William Randolph Hcarst, in collu sion with Du Pont Chemical, culmi nated in the criminalization of this most renewable of natural resources “Hemp fabric is really smokin'in fashion Circles these days. ” (this according to the badly Xeroxed hemp propaganda available at any hcadshop or NORML meeting). In fact, if the pro-hemp literature is to be believed, hemp just may save the world. Comic book rhetoric aside, though, hemp fabric is really smokin’ in fash ion circles these days. And some American farmers want in on the big gest cash cow since, well, cash cows. Sure hemp may have 50,000 com mercial uses, includingpaper, bio-mass conversion to fuel,and,ofeourse, rope. But can you wear it to the prom? Could the questions of style reverse years of government regulation? Ask a few dead presidents. Hemp fashion is a $60-million-a year industry and growing. This may be mostly because of po litical motives on the part ofconsum crs—who, after all, wants a shirt that will last forever, and be out of fashion in six months? “When people purchase hemp cloth ing, they arc motivated by a political stance on ecological issues,” Edwards said. Hemp docs not require environ mentally damaging dyes in the pro duction of cloth or paper, is more eas ily recycled because of its longer fiber length and can be grown without the use of the insecticides and herbicides in the cotton industry. A little hemp, in short, goes a long way. Fashion bind College lessens wardrobe selection stress; NU clothing, windpants do for daily dress The earliest recollection of fashion that 1 have is somewhat vague, as 1 suppose many childhood memories arc. 1 was randomly picked to be in a fash ion show. The directors dressed me up in a yellow sweater and skirt, cut my hair short, gave me a balloon and told me to smile. The next day my picture was in the paper. My smile, yellow outfit, short liair and balloon all were included in the photo as well as a nervous, 4-ycar old girl standing on her ankles. Thus, my first experience with the newspaper and the fashion industry coincided. Funny how they meet again. It seems now, at the ripe old age of 18, that 1 can look back on my life and observe how fashion has affected it. Asa chiId 1 ran around with springy, brown hair and VERY COOL Hee Haw overall jeans, inherited from my older brother. I was a tomboy inter ested in one thing, no-nonsense cloth ing that let me play hard and get dirty. But I evolved as many girls do. One morning 1 woke up to discover that w Kindra Molin everything in my wardrobe was pink | and had hearts on it. I remember play- « ing dress-up in the basement with my < friends and making beautiful gowns < for my Barbie dolls from scraps in my mother’s sewing bag. i And then there were those awk- 1 ward years. Those horrible, undefin- i able, growth-spurt years that leave one stranded between childhood and ado- c lcsccnce. We still wanted to go trick- r or-treating on Halloween but were loo sophisticated to be ghouls, ghosts or ( As a child, I ran around with springy, brown hair and VERY COOL Hee-Haw overall jeans. ” i i ►murfs. Wc settled instead on being ‘unk Rockers. Clothes just didn’t seem to fit cor ectly during those years. Shoe sizes, rm lengths and heights changed so apidly that a poor pre-teen was forced o wear the dreaded STRETCH 'ANTS! These were necessary be :ause they would do exactly what they laid — stretch with a young person’s :vcr-changing body. Remember getting ready for a niddle school dance? Makeup had to >e thickly applied, and bangs had to neasure in inches. In high school, I remember trying n at least three different shirts every loming to achieve that, “I’m not try Picking a prom dress, now that’s lefinitcly a pinnacle in any woman’s I I'ashion history. What to do? One needs a dress that’s classic yet risque, unique yet < acceptable. And completely different : than anything anyone else is wearing. < Unfortunately, black only comes in < otic shade — black. : And finally in college, there is free- i dom from the pressures of being fash- : ionably conscious. ; Or is there? One has many things to consider i when gcltingdressed. If one has woke up too late to consider what to wear, windpants and a favorite sweatshirt will suffice. Windpants and a sweatshirt work when one wakes with enough time too. It doesn’t seem as though there arc ; as many people to impress when no )nc is trying to impress anyone. Communal living, as in dorms, jrcek houses, or off eampus with a :ouplc of friends, increases one’s ward obe immensely. Where else can a icrson share clothes with 40 or 50 )thcr people the same age? College students are still faced with li lemmas of true fashion,however. As itudents, we arc choosing a life’s course. Thus, we must endure the Ireadcd INTERVIEW, where we arc aipposed to dress nicely, act pleas mlly and show off all of our intelli gence and creativity in 30 minutes to m hour. I don’t think windpants are going to ;ut it at an interview. Ultimately, ifpcoplccan’t find any hing else to wear, they should make iurc what they’re wearing is red and <ays Nebraska. Mnlln is a freshman advertising major ind a Daily Nebraskan columnist. THE MOOSE'S TOOTH 4007 "O" STREET 489-4849