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vegetable plant dyed fabric shibori lilabare

CREATING WITH NATURE


Plant Power


 

We are always working on improving our contribution & impact to society. In a recent project, we collaborated with Refushe, a group of women refugees turned artisans, to create the first scaled plant-dyeing project in East Africa. Sharing our skills & knowledge through a workshop & training program, the first of these projects uses tea leaves; one of Kenya's most abundant natural resources. The dye we created is completely natural, and using the Shibori dyeing technique as inspiration we created a 100% natural & unique print for the Spring/Summer 2020 season.

 

We are proud to share our journey with the women of Refushe.


plant based vegetable natural dye vegan friendly organic clothing lilabare kenya africa ss20

The Marie Jacket

100% dyed with tea


Knowledge is power

The women of Wearerefushe have been given a unique opportunity to enhance their vocational skills by learning tie-dyeing through their in-house program.

 

Since we are all about the natural, we reached out to the organization to collaborate, educate and further expand these skills. In the largest scale project of plant dyeing in East Africa, we facilitated a workshop in which 40 women we taught about the effects of chemical dyes on humans as well as the environment.

In a collaborative effort to create a completely natural textile, we then showed the women our hand folding & dyeing technique. Inspired by the Japanese dye process known as Shibori, and putting our unique spin on this, we spent two days preparing the fabrics.

Using only natural & locally available tea & spices, we prepared large scale dye vats for our hand-folded fabrics.

 

After several days of dyeing, drying, the women were shocked to see that not only did the colour of the tea hold onto the fabric, but that the textile had no smell after its wash!

 

We'd like to thank the members of the Refushe community for collaborating with us.

unisex organic cotton handdyed natural shirt dress using plant dyes collaboration lilabare refushe

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