Why Indigo?

My love of Natural Fibres and Indigo began as a teenager when I would search the “Brocantes” for old jeans, made from cotton and dyed with indigo which had aged to the perfect blue.

I began to read about this beautiful plant dye and to fall in love with its magic. It was unlike any other dye. To use this plant one had first to rob the solution of all oxygen, immerse the natural fibre in the solution (which was a greeny-yellow) and watch the colour change to blue as the oxygen was reintroduced. The process takes time and love, the result is true magic.

When used with silk, the magic deepened. Silk is a natural protein like hair, and would accept the deoxygenated indigo into its strands and when the molecules expanded with the addition of oxygen the colour remained trapped, too big now to escape.

Being a Nomad at heart, I travelled whenever I could, I have not been everywhere, but I’m always working on it, so I wanted to travel light, I hated waiting for baggage at carousels, it felt like wasting precious time, and so began my journey into sustainable, lightweight Silk and Indigo Kaftans.