DETOXING YOUR WARDROBE

BioColour is a multidisciplinary research consortium, and its scientists are studying non-toxic and biodegradable dyes and colorants. These can be produced from special crops, wood-based materials such as lignin and even by fungi, moulds and microbes. The goal is to be able to replace synthetic textile dyes sustainably and ethically.

But there are cultural, social and ethical dimension to colorants, too. If we want to reduce the environmental impact of fashion, we must ask ourselves whether the colours in our garments definitely need to be bright and strong? Or could we create a novel aesthetic that values naturally produced colours that fade over time? Could the biocolour palette become an attractive option? Could translucent be the new cool?

Read more about the BioColour project.

Fashion designer and Aalto alumna Maria Korkeila shows us how to use natural dyes at home.

Blue is the rarest colour in nature, and blue dye has historically been an expensive luxury commodity. It is usually obtained from tropical indigo plants, but in Finland, a native plant called dyer’s woad yields a non-toxic blue dye.

For centuries, dyer's woad was used in Europe to produce textile dyes. But when synthetic indigo was invented in the late 19th century, the cultivation, processing and use of this ancient plant dye came to an almost complete halt. Today, dyer’s woad can be cultivated on a large scale and used in industrial textile colouring processes. It is one example of how new crops can provide a fresh boost to agriculture.

Colours derived from nature are not as stable as synthetic ones, and biocolours tend to change over time. Thus, instead of a uniform navy blue, the result can be twenty shades of natural indigo!

Shiny and glittery things have always fascinated people, but this effect is largely created through the use of toxic pigments, plastic-based materials or metallic foils, all of which take a serious toll on the environment.

However, there are bright and vivid colours that occur in nature, like those found on peacock feathers and butterfly wings for example. These are “structural colours”, which means that they are created through microscopically small structures. When light hits these structures, our eyes perceive intense colour and glitter.

In their Structural Colour Studio, Aalto University designer Noora Yau and materials scientist Konrad Klockars have been exploring the cool features and characteristics of nature’s own structural colorants. Shimmering Wood is their non-toxic structural colour produced from wood using a sustainable, economically viable process. The process makes use of nanocellulose, which is created by splitting and splicing the cellulose found in wood into nanoscale lengths.

The result is “wood glitter” that arises from the physical structure of the material, without the need for chemical compounds. Suitable uses for the wood glitter include architecture, furniture and textiles. To date, Yau and Klockars’s experiments have extended into coating metal, plastic, wood and fabric.