Why Democratised Systems Need To Be The Future

Where you get the most – and the most out of – colour this season. Four professionals in the natural dyeing industry tell us why democratised systems need to be the future

- Riya Jain

The exuberance – the impact of colour, has always been reflected in Indian textiles. But, clearly, the greatest delight, brightly coloured and printed Indianorigin textiles, were exported in high quantities by the European East India companies pre– Industrial Revolution. And if we may take the liberty to say so, even added “fashion” to the wardrobe of the common European.

Colour turns the mood of summer, moves clothes right into the city night or a working day, and into another season. Fashion’s strongest stimulus for consumers is that it strikes you before fabric, fit, and feel. However, neon-bright chemical-laden concoctions discarded into rivers, ever-deteriorating work conditions and, more often than not, poverty line wages are the true cost of the season’s brights in fashion’s synthetic dyeing systems.

Frequently suggested as an alternative, natural dyes on an industrial level introduce their own set of pollution problems. Mostly green-washed for the buyer, natural dyes in untraceable supply chains are often fixed with chemical mordants. Counterintuitive mass production systems need to be democratised for real impact. So, how can smaller localised setups go about democratising fashion’s dyeing systems?

REWIND

From hair to fabric, dyeing in India has a plant-based history. Sisters Juhi and Janhavi Vyas of the label Akané combine amorphous shapes and sophisticated colours in hand-dyed floral prints through eco-dyeing forged leaves, bundle dyeing flowers and tie-dye techniques like shibori with plant-based pigments. The brand takes its sustainability badge seriously through naturally dyed slow fashion.