PATRICK LAFRONTIERE

A dark night. A full moon. A deep forest. A weak light blinking through the trees. Come closer and spot five faces hulled in black capes around a big pot heated by fire. This is not the Middle Ages, it's the year 2009. And these are not witches brewing some magical drink, but NYC designers experimenting with organic dyes.

Meet designer Melissa Dizon who dips organic cotton jerseys into tree bark liquids and spices like turmeric and cardamom. However, the designs of her wrap-dresses and comfy hoodies in earthy tones reflect an truly urban, androgynous feel. Like a rare potion, Dizon's Eairth can only be found in few stores including NY’s eco fashion temple Kaight. Other US based designers experimenting with home-brewed natural dyes can be found amongst the collective at Eko Lab.

MELISSA DZION

Is it a quest to stay close to Mother Earth that makes designers turn to nature, not just for inspiration, but also for sourcing and developing materials that celebrate nature's diversity, while staying away from the chemicals? And is rediscovering the planet's resources connected to ancient rituals that now experience a true revival?

Two years ago while travelling through the magical Dogon valley in Mali, I witnessed women creating mud cloth. Mud cloth is made of cotton strips woven by men and stitched together to form a larger cloth. The women were decorating the cloth with mud: they first soaked the rough cotton cloth in leaves that have a natural softening agent called tannin. Then they applied clay in geometric shapes that reacted to the tannin and a dark brown design was left on the fabric. After that, the background of the fabric was bleached white to improve the contrast of the design. Before flying back from Dakar, I met the queen of Senegalese haute couture Oumou Sy who is famous for her use of mud cloth and other traditional African materials and techniques to create the costumes of Dakar’s upper class.

CORINA RIETVELD

Designers Patrick LaFrontière and Sakina M'Sa seem to tap from similar African roots although with extremely different outcomes. Guyanese LaFrontière uses palm leaves to create his expressive works of art while M'sa, who was born on the Comoro islands between the African mainland and Madagascar, designs ready-to-wear. Brought up in Animist/Muslim traditions which she fuses with punk to create her hybrid designs, M'sa is famous for her buried or “planted” fabric, an empirical technique that ages material in a natural way through slow oxidation. 

LES RACINES DU CIEL

The earthy technique of burying cloth is used in different ways by others, like Chinese designer Ma Ke and French brand Les Racines du Ciel which means “roots of heaven.” One of the major fabrics of Les Racines du Ciel, for example, is Chinese lacquered silk, hand crafted in southern China for traditional Chinese garments. The silk is covered with a paste made from sweet potatoes and buried in the ground then dried in the sun and rinsed in the river 30 times. This intensive process adds up to one year for making the lacquer. Les Racines du Ciel also works with Kashishibu, a traditional Japanese dye made from persimmon fruit. The color of the dye evolves, gradually becoming dark brown. Every piece is hand-dyed by Ysabel de Maisonneuve, giving each garment a unique character.

WIETEKE OPMEER

From ancient dyeing and burying techniques to using nature's resources as surprising fashion materials. LaFrontière's palm leaves are the exotic variant of Nicole Dextras' “Horticouture”, a pagan chic take on plant-based fashion. Her floral and leafy creations are crafted to be impermanent with only a photographic record to document their moment of green splendor. Dextras'work reminds us of the sculptural landscape installations of Andy Goldsworthy and Wieteke Opmeer's seed jewelry that dissolves into flowers after being worn. And while some designers are experimenting with bark cloth derived from trees, Corine Rietveld uses the actual wood for her rings.

NICOLE DEXTRAS

All these designers are not just inspired by nature but seem to be searching for a new “rootedness”. Could this coincide with a renewed interest in “witchy” practices in different parts of the world? From highly educated Brazilian macha's that sacrifice animals in Candomblé to a revival of Goddess witchcraft in many western countries, it's clear that Mother Earth provides endless inspiration for innovation in green fashion.

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