The Hempire Story

Hempire Collective is a one woman show; founded by Trimayne Meader who started a career in fashion design, studying, interning and then going on to work in the fashion industry for many years in Sydney. Trimayne later discovered that the high end mainstream fashion culture no longer aligned with her core values of sustainability and ethics. Trimayne eventually decided to leave this world and pack up her life and move to Northern NSW taking on a totally different career path, studying Permaculture and working in Bush Regeneration. She found her path working with the earth and living intimately with the cycles of nature ; she quickly became more aware of her choices and the environmental footprint that follows those choices.

The idea was sparked for Hempire Collective when Trimayne struggled to find comfortable sustainable underwear on the market. Trimayne decided to incorporate her background in fashion design with her passion for sustainability by creating a brand that completely aligns with her values. Hempire Collective was born from a deep love of working intimately with the earth and a devotion to changing the way we do fashion.

In 2019, Trimayne travelled around India, Nepal and China researching natural fibres, textiles and exploring the cultivation and production of HEMP as a textile in Asia. Discovering how these ancient fibres have been traditionally cultivated for centuries has been a constant inspiration to us throughout our journey with Hempire Collective.

Our Mission

We’re dedicated to providing sustainable timeless fashion. Our cuts are simple yet comfortable designed to wear to yoga, work or lounging about. Our garments are designed with the intention to be your everyday wardrobe essentials. We want people to feel empowered by wearing our garments knowing that they are supporting a brand that is dedicated to the future of hemp and revolutionizing the way we do fashion.

Our goal is to have our own solar powered hemp textile processing facility here in Australia and eventually produce our own hemp fabric for us and many others hemp enthusiasts who would like to purchase Australian made hemp. We feel by doing this we will be able to have our production monitored closely here on-shore whilst reducing our carbon footprint immensely. We feel it is important to educate, inspire and spread the message about hemp and its budding potential especially here in Australia with perfect land and climate conditions for it to really make a huge difference to our planet! Hemp is the solution to the global textile problem we are now facing, with the fashion industry being the largest pollutant in the world. We are fueled by our excitement for the potential of hemp and how it will revolutionize many industries, not just fashion and we look forward to being part of that journey!

Supply Chain

Our fabric is grown in the world’s hemp textile capital; Heilongjiang, China. We are grateful to be sourcing our fabric from leading professionals who are passionate about constantly advancing their knowledge and skills within this field to create a more sustainable future with hemp as a textile.

When the hemp is ready to be harvested, the long fibres inside the stalks are then separated from the bark of the plant, this process is referred to as “retting”. These fibres are then spun into a continuous thread that can be woven into a fabric. Once the fibres have been spun, it is then knitted using special machinery (see video below) with our GOTS Certified Organic Cotton and 5% spandex to allow for stretch. However we are working towards using recycled spandex fibres to be blended into our garments in the near future to create a more sustainable fabric and closed loop system. Unfortunately right now as a small start up we don’t have the capabilities to create fabrics from scratch, so we are working with the best quality fabrics that are available to us in the current market until we can change that for ourselves.

Once the fabric is knitted into our beautiful soft and durable hemp organic cotton it is sent to our garment makers who are a small family run business who we have been working with since 2019 and are proud to be supporting a company that we have watched expand and build itself up from the ground like us.

As we work towards carbon neutrality, we are committed to minimising our environmental impact every step of the way. That’s why it is important to us to have chosen a manufacturer down the road from where our fabric is produced. By keeping our production localised to one province; Hangzhou, China means we aren’t shipping our garments all over the world before it’s delivered to your door. Our goal is to minimize our carbon footprint every step of the way throughout our production line to the best of our capabilities.

All Natural

At Hempire Collective we are proud to be using all natural plant material collected here in Australia to create sustainable eco-friendly dyes for our intimates and our earth. It is important to us that we use natural dyes on our garments and vital that we have full control over how our wastewater is managed as mass production dye houses are currently a massive problem occurring in countries where manufacturing is cheap and chemical dying is not considered to be of environmental impact. Most countries don’t have the right infrastructure to dispose of waste water effectively and therefore contributing to being a key factor in polluting our waterways. By keeping our dying on shore here in Australia and small scale, not only is every piece uniquely crafted it is safer for your intimates to be breathing in natural dyes too.

Sustainable Packaging

Once our garments are dyed here in Australia we package all our garments in recycled paper and send them out in biodegradable post bags.

We use the original comPOST Pack – a certified home compostable, fully biodegradable mailing satchel partly made from plants.

Transparency

We don’t believe in greenwashing, we believe in transparency. Our commitment is to be completely transparent with our customers every step of the way. Throughout our whole journey of researching and visiting places within the fashion/hemp industry; we have learnt a lot about what is possible and what is still not possible due to the politics around the hemp plant as well as the plant still being in its early stages of development as a textile. We are definitely still learning as we evolve with our business and as technology advances in this field. However we have come to the conclusion that one can always aspire to create a greener footprint especially in the fashion industry being one of the world’s biggest polluters. Our commitment and intention is to be constantly striving towards making ethical and sustainable choices for our brand to the best of our capabilities being a small start up business.

If it were possible we would have all our production on-shore in our own country but unfortunately the current industry of Australia’s hemp textile & production industry has not yet developed in this way. We are passionate about this becoming a reality for us in the near future and will continue to strive towards making changes wherever possible as our business model and production chain is constantly evolving to become more carbon neutral.

What we do know is that by choosing to work with hemp as a textile we are contributing to a budding sustainable industry that is hemp and it needs our support globally. In order for the hemp industry to evolve, we know and understand that more hemp consumers are necessary in order to assist in growing the hemp textile industry, especially here in Australia. We are committed to spreading awareness about hemp and working with hemp farmers here in Australia to someday have production here on-shore. We are happy to know that we are striving towards making a closed loop system for our brand here in Australia someday when the industry and supply chain permits.

Ethical Suppliers

For now we are happy to be working with suppliers who promote and respect the rights of all their workers involved throughout their supply chain. In 2019 we visited all our factories and can confirm that all our manufacturers are being treated in accordance with fair trade regulations.

We believe we are doing the best we can by working with our friends in China who are experts in the field of hemp textiles. Our suppliers who work in the field of natural fibres and fabrics are constantly striving towards less energy output and the use of non toxic chemicals. Our suppliers are committed to carefully monitoring and controlling their waste water output to minimize their impact on the environment and creating comfortable safe working environments for all employees. We are grateful to have the opportunity to be working alongside such experts in the hemp industry as a small scale brand and provide hemp intimates to the world with our unique vision. When you purchase one of our hemp garments you are contributing to the solution so be be part of revolution.