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A new crop of fabrics being made from unconventional materials such as bamboo, soy, and hemp are emerging and as awareness grows about cotton’s downsides, these unconventional fabrics are garnering more attention. Fabrics produced from hemp have long captured the eco-minded consumer’s imagination, being cultivated for use in clothing and other products for thousands of years. While hemp requires few, if any, insecticides or herbicides to grow and produces long, strong fibres suitable for clothing and other products, hemp production remains heavily regulated in the U.S. Consequently, most hemp grown for cloth is imported from China and Eastern Europe, and the price for most hemp goods remains relatively high.
Of the new fabrics to emerge, bamboo has perhaps garnered the most attention. Bamboo has become a popular fabric, not only because of its sustainability (bamboo requires few, if any, pesticides to grow) but also because of its versatility. With a surprising softness and sheen, bamboo fabric is popular with a number of innovative clothing designers, who are incorporating bamboo fabric into everything from t-shirts to designer dresses. The naturally antibacterial, quick-drying, absorbent bamboo material also lends itself well to a variety of athletic wear. And bamboo’s surprising softness and sheen makes it a popular choice for many household products, from bamboo bed sheets, to bamboo bath towels and table linens.
A less common, but equally promising material is soy fabric. Developed in China in 1999, soy fabric is still primarily in its developmental stages. Soy fibres are created by extracting proteins from the remainders of tofu production and fusing these proteins with organic compounds to create a fibre strong enough to be spun into yarn. While the soy fabric’s use is limited, the soybean fibre is beginning to appear in items like socks, sheets, and yoga clothing. The use of soy fabric and the development of other such unconventional fabrics will continue to expand as the demand for more earth friendly materials continues to grow.
