Introduction to dyeing with natural dyes

Indigofera is a plant colour we all probably recognise easily, even if we can’t name it, particularly from the blue jeans and cowboy pants that so many, all over the world, dress in. Today, however, it is no longer the natural plant dye indigo that is used for the well-known blue jeans colour. After fifty years of research, the indigo dye was synthesised by BASF in 1897 and marketed under the name “Indigo Pure BASF”. The interesting thing is that one still has to use a rather complicated chemical – almost magical – process, to get the indigotine to settle on the fabric or the yarn one is dyeing. Already in 1873, Levi Strauss and his partner were the first to produce jeans. It was a great success which has since become an immense industry. Today, our jeans are dyed with synthetic indigo or another blue colour. However, there are still small productions of jeans in some places which are dyed with natural indigo. At one time it became almost impossible to buy natural indigo. Jeans had become so successful that Levis and others bought up all the indigo that was grown and made dye from it. Since then, jean production has become so gigantic that even the fabric leftovers from manufacturing the jeans in the USA are sent to The Federal Reserve Bank and used in the production of dollar bills.

So why do I use natural indigo? I can't relate to the magic, but the colouring process itself is completely different from all other plant colouring. The blue colour only settles on the yarn after it has been oxygenated. The blue colour of the fabric or the yarn is realised between one's hands after taking it out of the dye bath. But that's not why either. There are two primary reasons. The first is that I love the colours themselves. Colours from plants are so clear and beautiful. They are playful. Next, they have a much longer colour fastness. One need only glance at the wealth of tapestries hanging in castles around Europe. They were often woven in the 1700s, and the colours that are still visible today are the reds from madder and cochineal and the blue and blue-green from indigo. So they have lasted from 1700 - 2024. Not all plant colours have such a long shelf life. Many have 10 to 15 or 40 years, which is excellent for textiles that aren’t expected to last that long anyway. But if you are really aware of today's industrial dyeing and textile processes, which are a pigsty without equal, and would like to remedy overconsumption, and help suppliers, in my case, sheep breeders, indigo producers and the small yarn manufacturers, this is the way to go. I see this as a real circular economy.