Welcome

Thanks for taking a stroll down The Hemp Road.  As I’ve explored industrial hemp textiles over the last 15 years, I have fallen in love with hemp’s beauty, longevity, comfort and variety.  The hemp textile industry has also made great strides in manufacturing during this time: weaving hemp/cotton, hemp/silk, hemp/wool, hemp/spandex, hemp/recycled polyester, hemp/Tencel along with other knitted variations. Concerns regarding the global impact of the textile industry have drawn me closer to hemp. The quantities of pesticides, herbicides and water needed to grow cotton and flax are astounding. The dumping of dyes and chemicals into waterways cannot be ignored. The Pearl River, which flows next to one of the largest jean factories in China, is black in color when viewed from space.  Workers are unprotected from the chemicals and the surrounding communities use those polluted waters. Your choice of clothing can make a difference in these issues. This website is about awareness.

A degree in costume design from the Art Institute of Chicago has been the strong foundation for years of working professionally in theatre, film and fashion. Studying tailoring under the head production tailor for Hart, Schaffner & Marx gave me an added understanding of clothing as sculpture. For 20 years, I taught tailoring, historic costume construction, bias draping and costume history at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in the Theatre School’s BFA and MFA Costume Design Program. Wanting “to do” rather than teach, I have free-lanced the last 15 years, costuming for AZ Theatre Co., La Jolla Playhouse, The Guthrie, Pasadena & Geffen Playhouses  and designing hemp clothing for private clients.

This site will always be a work in progress! Many attempts will be made to figure out how best to help those wanting to make their own hemp clothes or those who would like hemp clothes made to wear.

More soon!  Gay Crusius  

info1(at) The Hemp Road(dot) com