Starting from scratch, textile hemp follows in linen's footsteps

Villepinte (France) - From suits and jeans to flip-flops, hemp, a natural fibre used in textiles for centuries before falling into disuse, is making a comeback. Its advocates hope it will follow the same path in fashion as linen.

At the Première Vision trade fair in Villepinte, near Paris, the European Confederation of Flax and Hemp (ALCE) stand displays various hemp garments alongside traditional ropes. While the appearance may seem austere at first, the feel is surprisingly pleasant.

For the first time, ALCE has decided to spotlight this fibre. France is the leading European producer with 23,000 hectares, but only 1,650 are dedicated to textiles. The rest is used for paper, oil, and building insulation. This is a drop in the ocean compared to linen's 176,000 hectares, 90 percent of which are used by the textile industry.

And yet, Marie-Emmanuelle Belzung, general delegate of the alliance, told AFP: “When I arrived 19 years ago, there was no linen anywhere. Not on the Fashion Week catwalks, nor in high street stores.”

Supply chain

“Innovation and creativity have elevated linen, along with its sustainable positioning,” she explained. “Two approaches worked to refine the fibre. One was washed linen, which gave it a ‘cool’ feel, far from the rougher ‘grandmother's sheets’ image. The other was knitwear, which allowed for the creation of T-shirts, now found everywhere from Uniqlo to Monoprix.”

While linen accounts for 0.5 percent of global textile fibre production, hemp “is not even quantifiable,” Julie Pariset, innovation and CSR director at ALCE, told AFP.

According to an October 2025 analysis by Market Research Future (MRFR), this niche is set to expand. The global hemp clothing market, valued at nearly three billion dollars in 2024, is projected to reach 8.5 billion dollars by 2035, representing an annual growth of almost 10 percent.

However, “it’s not enough to just press a button to get textile hemp; an entire supply chain needs to be built” and then sustained, stated Pariset, showing a book filled with samples, including jerseys with a crêpe-like feel.

Some brands have already taken the plunge, such as the American company Levi's, which produces jeans from a hemp and cotton blend, and Tommy Hilfiger, which has just released 100 percent hemp flip-flops.

Favourable regulation

In the US and Canada, growth is driven by “increasing consumer awareness of sustainable fashion, coupled with favourable regulations for hemp cultivation,” noted MRFR.

Bart Depourcq, head of the Dutch company Van de Bilt, which specialises in the scutching (separating fibres from the wood and bark) of flax and hemp, is convinced. “The markets for these two plants are different but will not compete with each other,” he told AFP. “They are complementary.”

“Does hemp have the same potential as linen? We don't know, but we believe in it; we just need to give it time,” maintained Belzung.

For Catherine Basquin, a textile consultant at the Nelly Rodi consulting agency, “hemp concretely illustrates the current ‘back to basics’ trend. Even if it is not yet commonly used in fashion, it addresses questions about textile sourcing, ethics, and eco-design.”

She added, speaking to AFP, that “it will need to prove it has moved far beyond its rustic ‘potato sack’ image” and its association with cannabis, which belongs to the same species.

One significant obstacle remains: the price. At Ralph Lauren, a pair of 100 percent hemp trousers sells for 395 euros, while a pure hemp blouse from HempAge costs 72 euros. “That’s the common ground between linen and hemp,” admitted Depourcq. “It will never be cheap.”