July 20, 2012

Conscious Fashion: Born To Dye

So we all love color, right? Even if you’re an all-black type of gal, the clothes that we choose to wear are nothing without the colored dyes that are used to create them. Anything from fashion week runway shows to the mannequins in Topshop are nothing without the rainbow of colours that us fashion- magpies are attracted to.

So from the neon-pinks to the pastel-blues, as beautiful as these colors are, they aren’t natural. And if they aren’t natural, they are bound to have some impact on the environment, no matter how hard we try to be more sustainable. Harmful toxins may be contained in these paints and dyes which no doubt end up in water systems and are potentially harmful to both plant and human life. Water is not only affected in this way, but also in the fact that large amounts of it are used to activate the dyes in the first place. This is where the genius of AirDye works its magic! AirDye is a fabric dying technique with a difference- it doesn’t use water. And here comes the science part- rather than using water to transfer the dyes from paper to fabric, heat energy is used. This saves up to 25 gallons of water per garment, according to AirDye’s website. And what’s even better is that the paper, used dyes and toners are also recycled, making the whole process virtually waste free.

AirDye has even gone high fashion! The design duo Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra have used the technology to create various collections over the years. Check out their Spring/Summer 2012 collection and you’ll see that the rest of the fashion crowd will soon be racing to follow in their footsteps…

Photo credit: www.thefashionlist.com