Wear a hemp T-shirt, rather than cotton, out of respect for the environment ? This is the bet on the future taken by Anne Reboux, met at the fashion and textile innovation trade fair Avantex, last February. The co-founder of RBX Créations explains to Boudoir Numérique how her textile innovation startup is working on new applications of this plant with millennial virtues, from an eco-responsible perspective. Interview.

By Ludmilla Intravaia 

Le Boudoir Numérique : What is RBX Créations ? 

Anne Reboux, co-founder of RBX Créations : It’s an innovation startup in textile materials, mainly hemp, co-founded in 2016 by my brother Charles Reboux and myself. The starting point for our approach was born out of my brother's desire to launch his shoe brand. Through his studies in design, his visits to the garment workshops, his meetings in trade fairs, he realized the negative impact on the environment of the materials used in fashion. Having joined him in his quest, we started looking for more sustainable materials and our path crossed that of hemp, a resource that grows quickly, captures a lot of CO2, does not require the addition of chemicals, consumes less water than cotton for example and comes from rotational agriculture which enriches the soil, preserves the water tables and promotes biodiversity. In short, it is a super plant, in the fight against climate change, for the respect of the environment, as an alternative in particular to cotton and synthetic fibers, derived from petrochemicals.

What are the activities of RBX Créations ?

First, we created Gorfoo, a brand of clothing and accessories including items in ecological materials, for sale on our website, such as handmade hemp caps, cork backpacks, bamboo T-shirts, cinnamon soles or ramie wallets, a plant belonging to the nettle family, all these products with an origin authenticated, transparently, by us. But our main activity is research and development to develop hemp in an innovative way, in order to widen the field of its commercial applications.

What do you mean by that ?

We started from the observation that textile hemp almost no longer exists for historical and technical reasons. Indeed, hemp, one of the first plants domesticated by man, widely used during the history of humanity, in the navy, for example, to make boat sails and ropes, saw its production collapse, since the industrial revolution with the large-scale development of cotton, then competition from synthetic fibers. Not to mention the prohibition linked to the psychotropic properties of cannabis. From a technical point of view, hemp is a relatively thick and resistant fabric which cannot currently give rise to an extremely wide range of products, all the more since it requires specific spinning factories which no longer exist in France. All these elements restrict its possible applications. Finally, traditional textile hemp is harvested before the seeds mature. These seeds, an excellent source of protein, make it possible, for example, to make an oil with great nutritional qualities, a growing outlet for farmers. In this context, turning to textile hemp would deprive them of the food outlet. This is why we started working with hemp harvested after the seeds have ripened to combine textile and food commercial opportunities. In addition, we are experimenting on the different processing stages, to obtain more versatile, easier to work with, finer yarn, etc., in order to open up a much wider field of application for hemp.

Are you already in contact with brands ?

For the moment, we are still in the R&D phase, but yes, brands are coming to consult us more and more, in search of materials that would have less impact on the environment, such as hemp. We are currently thinking about how to combine this growing demand from brands with the progress of our research because we still produce our materials, in small quantities, in the laboratory. For example, the jacket that we present, here, on our Avantex stand, under our Iroony project to develop new materials born from R&D, is a POC, a proof of concept to demonstrate that we are capable of manufacturing lovely clothing with new materials, from the lab to the designer, in this case the Parisian brand Sondès LJ. The hemp in this piece was harvested, after the seeds had matured and we managed to integrate its fibers into the conventional spinning process. But it is a unique model, which has not yet been developed on a large scale. Our goal is to boost the production capacity of our materials, to meet future market requirements.

How do you see the future of hemp in terms of sustainable development ?

Hemp seems to me an essential asset in the current context, in order to find effective solutions that can be quickly put in place to fight against climate change. I think that, in the coming years, more and more farmers will turn to the cultivation of hemp which will offer them new outlets, thanks to the industrialization of the local production of innovative materials. And that tomorrow, we will all be dressed in hemp, without necessarily being aware of it, as the clothes made from this material will have become so comfortable to wear.

* Gorfoo website is here.

* Le Boudoir Numérique met Anne Reboux at Avantex, the high-tech and innovative textile trade fair, that took place at Le Bourget, from February 10 to 13, 2020. The next edition of Avantex will take place from September 14 to 17, 2020. More information on the event website here.

* Continue reading on Avantex with these following Boudoir Numérique papers : 

- Avantex 2020 : Le Boudoir Numérique’s recap

- “Linen tells the collective story of french know-how

- “Augmenting garments functionalities thanks to biomaterials”

- What to see in Avantex?

- "Biofabrication promotes eco-responsible fashion"

- “Textile know-how and science meet in Atelier Sumbiosis”