Prototipo Studio and the restoration of Italian hemp supply chain: a challenge

Every step guaranteed in Italy, without chemical agents, in transparent traceability: harvesting, fiber scutching, steeping in water, spinning: Prototipo and the hemp yarn

Hemp – the only sustainable fiber in Italy for the textile industry

Within the textile industry hemp is the only sustainable fiber that can be grown in Italy. We want to proceed with the implementation of a short, circular, waste-conscious supply chain and control of energy and water resources.
To date, approximately twenty thousand hectares of hemp are farmed in Italy. Crops are grown mainly to supply not the textile industry, but the construction industry that is today mixing hemp with concrete; and to supply the pharmacology, para-pharmacology and cosmetic industries with the CBD essential elements.

Italian Hemp – Prototipo supply chain: scutching, and water-retting. The canapule, or the hurd

In order to produce textile fiber, the stems in the field must be harvested in sheaves and processed in a scutching machine. The scutching machine activates a mechanical separation between the fiber locked in the bark on one side – on the other side, the canapule, or central stem (also named hurd or shive), a pith that is nothing but wood. The scutching machine will have to detach the fiber from the inner stem without fragmenting it too much, or worse, pulverizing it. The well separated and intact fiber will appear as a filament glued to the wood chips of the bark, stiff and rough. The fiber will then have to undergo the water retting stage – that we can also name maceration.
The fibers – which then look like broken stems or sticks of wood – are placed in tanks of water, the oxygenation level of which is controlled by computerized sensors. Through monitoring, oxygen remains constant, without allowing the water to degenerate into slurry. Water-Retting is just an evolution of the ancient treatment: once, stems were thrown into the canals along the fields, which then putrefied and became unhealthy. Today, water kept at a suitable level of oxygen becomes a receptacle for proteins, sugars and minerals, which, once the steeping process is completed, can provide nutritious irrigation to crop fields.
After a few days, the fiber is extracted from the water: it appears soft. The cortical wood that was blocking it has become mush. With a step of beating and washing, again keeping it neat to parallel, the hemp fiber is ready for the steps necessary for spinning.

Prototipo Studio, Italian hemp: retting and the bioreactor yarn and textile production: denim and gauze like fabrics

March 2024: a bioreactor owned by Prototipo Studio is working. It manages a water-retting load of 100 kilograms per week.

Prototipo works on restoring a complete Italian supply chain, from seed in the field to spinning. The finished product will an Italian hemp yarn, sourced and made in Italy, through natural processes, without any chemical additives – where secondary material will be inserted in other production chains.

It will be a 100% hemp yarn and fabric of Italian origin and processing: this is the project’s first purpose of innovation, in the respects of an Italian, traceable and transparent short supply chain.

Hemp is the only potential raw material of Italian origin and workmanship – to date non-existent – for the Italian textile industry (cotton and linen cannot be cultivated in our territory). Leaving the vegetable dimension, entering the animal chain, in Italy we can have wool and alpaca. Silk is not produced in Italy anymore, but is imported.

The hemp plant is native, growing almost all over Italy without needing an abundance of water (the water table, too high in some areas of the Po Valley, can damage it).

Hemp can give rise to heavy-weight (ref: denim) and light-weight (gauze-like) fabrics – depending on the thread count that will be possible to spin.

Italian hemp, yarns and fabrics – Made and Sourced in Italy for the textile industry

The marketing of Italian hemp yarn produced by a restored agricultural and manufacturing supply chain will have as target customers all those textile companies attentive to sustainable, traceable Italian short supply chain. It is about raising the quality code of the Made in Italy for the textile industry, and moving to an additional rigor: Made and Sourced in Italy with a short supply chain that is sincere, transparent and increasingly ready to provide digital certifications for fabrics.

Italian hemp and the textile industry – certifying body and Blockchain

Labels report every step of production and sourcing. To date, there is no certifying body for hemp traceability in Europe and a Blockchain clear asset is not ready yet. Prototipo Studio is working on transparency even before a blockchain.

Editorial team