INTERVIEW: Marta Vinhas is the founder of Sensihemp, a regenerative fashion brand from Portugal that works exclusively with hemp. With 20 years of experience in the textile industry, she created Sensihemp in 2021 to challenge fast fashion through circular design, local craftsmanship, and sustainable materials. Based in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal, her brand won top honors at Madrid’s Circular Sustainable Fashion Week this year, and is gaining recognition across Europe for its commitment to ethical sourcing, circularity, and designs using hemp textiles.
HempToday: Let’s start with your recent win in Madrid. What does the award from the Circular Sustainable Fashion Week mean for you personally and for Sensihemp?
Marta Vinhas: This award is a huge milestone for Sensihemp. Personally, it’s a deep validation of my decision to leave the fast fashion industry and start over with a purpose-driven brand. It also brought a sense of hope, hope for a better future, not just for Sensihemp, but for the role hemp can play in transforming fashion.
What makes it even more meaningful is that I’ve never received any financial support for this project. Everything was built with my own resources, step by step. Years of research, development, and experimentation—all self-funded—were essential to bring hemp into the fashion world in a serious, credible way.
For Sensihemp, this recognition shows that regenerative and circular fashion can be beautiful, innovative, and relevant. The award has opened new doors for collaboration and visibility, and it’s helping to position hemp where it belongs: at the heart of a more sustainable fashion future.
HT: Walk us through how hemp moves through your system—from raw material to finished garment. Where is your hemp sourced, how is it processed, and how do you maintain your zero-waste, regenerative values throughout?
MV: I source the hemp primarily from European suppliers, especially France and Romania, where the crop is grown without pesticides and with minimal water. They use mechanical, low-impact processes to extract the fiber. The design and production happen locally in Portugal, with a strong focus on minimal waste, scraps are reused in accessories or workshops. I partner with artisans for natural dyeing and small-scale production, which helps me keep control of environmental and social impact.
HT: Given the lack of industrial hemp textile processing in Portugal, what are the biggest challenges in your supply chain—and how are you navigating them?
MV: The biggest challenge is the disconnect between Portuguese hemp cultivation and textile processing. While Portugal has excellent conditions and growing interest in cultivating hemp, we still lack the infrastructure to transform the raw plant into high-quality textile fiber at scale. This creates logistical and cost barriers and makes local sourcing difficult.
From 2018 to 2023, I was one of the organizers of Cannadouro, the international hemp fair in Porto, which allowed me to connect with many key players in Portugal’s agro-industrial hemp sector. With 20 years of experience in the textile industry, I also have strong relationships in that world. My role has naturally become one of building bridges between these two sectors—encouraging collaboration and helping to create a shared language and vision for a regenerative future.
To navigate the current gaps, I work with trusted partners across Europe and focus on keeping our supply chain small, transparent, and aligned with our values. At the same time, I continue to advocate for investment in local regenerative processing infrastructure, which I believe is crucial for the future of hemp textiles in Portugal.
Hemp fashions by Sensihemp
HT: You’ve expanded into a women’s line with your new collection. What kinds of pieces are in this line, and who is your ideal customer?
MV: The new collection features timeless, comfortable pieces designed to adapt to different occasions and lifestyles. I created modular, reversible garments.
The collection includes fluid knitwear made from hemp blends, and showcases artisanal techniques such as upcycling. I reused production scraps from previous Sensihemp collections, giving them a second life through upcycling. I also introduced handcrafted knitwear pieces to bring back the value of know-how and celebrate the beauty of slow, intentional craftsmanship.
The Sensihemp ideal customer is someone who values authenticity, sustainability, and craftsmanship. She wants to wear something that reflects her ethics without compromising on comfort, functionality, or style.
HT: Your work blends traditional craftsmanship with forward-looking sustainability. How do you select your artisan partners and collaborators?
MV: I look for artisans who share a respect for nature, cultural heritage, and fair labor. Many of them are based in rural areas of Portugal and work with techniques like hand-weaving, embroidery, or botanical dyeing. It’s important that the collaboration feels mutual and meaningful, many of them co-create with me from the early design stages. I see these partnerships as essential to keeping both our craft and our ecosystems alive.
HT: You’re clearly dedicated to community and education. How do your upcycling workshops and repair events tie into your brand mission—and have they influenced your design process?
MV: These workshops are a way to engage directly with the community and pass on knowledge about circularity and sustainability. They reinforce the idea that fashion can be participative, not just consumptive. I’ve learned a lot from participants’ creativity. It reminds me that the best design solutions are often found in simplicity and reuse. This has influenced how I approach new collections, more adaptable pieces, modular elements, and built-in longevity.
HT: How are you building awareness for hemp fashion? What’s working for you in terms of marketing, branding, and customer engagement?
MV: Raising awareness is one of the core missions of Sensihemp. Beyond digital communication, I actively participate in roundtables, sustainability events, school awareness sessions, and public talks. I also take part in local fairs and markets where I engage directly with people. These face-to-face conversations are powerful opportunities to demystify hemp, I often explain that the fiber used in textiles comes from the stalk, not the flower, and that no, you can’t smoke a hemp dress! Many people are still surprised to learn this.
On social media, storytelling works very well—we show the process, the people behind the pieces, and the environmental benefits of hemp. I also highlight not just the quality and performance of hemp textiles, but their wider socio-economic importance, especially in the context of regenerative agriculture and rural development. It’s about connecting the material to a deeper purpose.
HT: What do you see as the biggest obstacles to making hemp more mainstream in European fashion? What would help move the sector forward?
MV: The main barriers are lack of infrastructure, misinformation, and resistance to change within the industry. Hemp still suffers from an outdated stigma and is often misunderstood as rough or limited in use. What would help? Education, investment in processing technology, and showcasing successful, stylish examples. If major players adopted hemp with transparency and creativity, the perception would shift faster.
HT: Looking ahead, what are the next big steps for Sensihemp? Are you exploring new product categories, markets, or partnerships?
MV: Right now, I’m preparing to relaunch the e-commerce and looking for financial support to help take Sensihemp to the next level. Until now, I’ve been building this project entirely on my own, so one of the key steps ahead is forming a dedicated team and creating meaningful collaborations with brands or designers who share my values around sustainability, circularity, and regenerative practices.
I also intend to stay deeply involved with the hemp community in Portugal. I’m currently organizing the Hemp Fiber Lab in collaboration with 7Irmãs and Social Weed, a cultural and educational event that will take place June 20–22. Over three days, we’ll explore the full hemp cycle, from seed to garment, through a rich program of hands-on workshops, talks, and demonstrations. The goal is not only to showcase hemp’s potential, but to foster dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and community-building around this powerful plant.
For me, Sensihemp has always been more than a fashion label, it’s a platform to regenerate systems, reconnect people to materials, and build a future rooted in care.
HT: What does success look like for you five years from now?
MV: Success would mean seeing a thriving network of hemp growers, artisans, and designers working together locally, supported by a community of conscious consumers. I want Sensihemp to be recognized as a reference in regenerative fashion, not only for the pieces created, but for the way they are created, rooted in ethics, ecology, and collaboration.
I hope to remain deeply connected to the land, to the people I work with, and to the purpose that drives this project. And of course, I want Sensihemp to be financially sustainable, to generate enough profit to keep growing, support a team, and continue fulfilling our mission in a solid, independent way.