Talking about Natural Dyes - Art + Fashion
From the studio No.42
It's July and the dye garden is bursting with fecundity - of both plants and ideas.
Here’s a very short video of part of the regenerative natural dye, food and medicine garden, it forms a part of the forest garden.
It's July and the dye garden is bursting with fecundity - of both plants and ideas.
Here’s a very short video of part of the regenerative natural dye, food and medicine garden, it forms a part of the forest garden.
Do you see it as chaotic and overgrown?
Or ABUNDANT?
This garden is full of flora and fauna. Full of dye, medicine and food plants. Here is a list of some of the plants in the video:
Budlia - colour
Rosa rugosa - food, medicine
Fennel - food, medicine, colour
Marshmallow - medicine
Sweet cicily - food
Tansy - colour, medicine
Mugwort - medicine
Elecampane - medicine
Evening primrose - food, medicine
Jostaberry - food
Comfrey - colour, food, medicine
Willow - food
Crab apple - food
It also has deep mineral accumulators and nitrogen fixers. Creating the edge of a forest garden. An edible forest.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY! - FASHION SHOW 17th AUGUST
And a little head’s up. SARAH POLAND is taking part in a fashion show during Aberjazz Jazz n Blues Festival 2025, at the beautiful venue Ffwrn in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.
There will be cheese and wine tastings with Feral Pig Wine , DJ’s spinning vinyl and fashion shows from SARAH POLAND, and Jolette Le Roux.
I’ll send more about tickets and details next week when I get the poster.
And there are so many more events to come to let you know about…LONDON, BRIGHTON, OXFORD.
Thank you for following my journey,
My best,
Sarah x
From the studio No.41
The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party is THE event on the art calendar.
Photographer and film maker Mark Lebon, known for his boundary breaking fashion photography in the 1980's and 90's, wears a commissioned SARAH POLAND kilt to the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party 2025.
The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party is THE event on the art calendar.
Photographer and film maker Mark Lebon, known for his boundary breaking fashion photography in the 1980's and 90's, wears a commissioned SARAH POLAND kilt to the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party 2025.
I met Mark originally back in 1998 when I was a stylist's assistant on a fashion shoot for iD magazine. We shot at Marks's super cool West London studio.
I met up with him again last year and gave a gift of a natural dyed piece of artwork. He commissioned me to make it into a kilt, non-conforming and deconstructed of course, I painted it, natural dyed it, made sock flashes and a kilt pin badge using off-cuts and thread-ends. He wore it this summer to both the opening event of Serpentine Gallery Summer Party AND Graces Mews Gallery launch (founded by his son, photographer Tyrone Lebon) in South London .
I’ve got an exciting collaboration happening with Mark too.
All will be revealed in time…
My best,
Sarah x
From the studio No.40
A SHORT INTRODUCTORY VIDEO ABOUT MY JOURNEY TO START A NATURAL DYED, LIMITED EDITION, UK MADE CLOTHING BRAND, PLUS A DIP INTO THE REGENERATIVE DYE GARDEN.
The why and what SARAH POLAND Art | Fashion is about and stands for as a clothing brand with sustainability and ethics at its core, with zero waste, circular design principles.
A SHORT INTRODUCTORY VIDEO ABOUT SARAH POLAND, A NATURAL DYED, LIMITED EDITION, UK MADE CLOTHING BRAND.
PLUS A DIP INTO THE REGENERATIVE DYE GARDEN.
The why and what SARAH POLAND Art | Fashion is about and what it stands for as a clothing brand with sustainability and ethics at its core, with zero waste, circular design principles.
It takes time to refine and articulate what a brand is about.
From looking after the soil and the people who tend it, to growing crops for textiles, to natural dyeing with no toxic waste, ethically manufacturing in the UK, to the wearer and the life of the garment with the possibility reinvigorate by offering a repair and re-dye service, to its end-of-life composted back into the soil to support healthy new growth.
Circular design.
Zero waste.
Non toxic.
No over production.
Hand crafted.
Made with care and quality in the UK.
Chic, wearable, fashion conscious natural dyed clothing.
See also:
Thank you for following my journey,
My best,
Sarah x
From the studio No.38
In the studio, this year for me is all about getting out there - gaining visibility, collaboration and well, just keeping on keeping on.
This month and probably next month too, will be a creative time. For many years I’ve wanted to create my own wardrobe, wear mostly my own designs.
You could call it a capsule collection, perhaps a mini collection, I’m just going to call it a wardrobe for now.
In the studio, this year for me is all about getting out there - gaining visibility, collaboration and well, just keeping on keeping on.
This month and probably next month too, will be a creative time. For many years I’ve wanted to create my own wardrobe, wear mostly my own designs.
You could call it a capsule collection, perhaps a mini collection, I’m just going to call it a wardrobe for now.
I’ve been working on the website this month too and have added a new page WHAT IS NATURAL DYE.
So if you’d like to know more about what they are, where they come from, a little history and some images of the plants, dye extracts and natural dyed cloth, click the link.
My mission this year is to get better at creating blogs and write about the wonderful qualities and beauty of natural dyes - it’s all about visibility and letting people know what I’m up to.
But for now, here’s a bit of fun with some contact sheets. I tried each jacket on…on top of the other, size 8 to 16…I couldn’t quite fit the 16 on too!
The background painting was made during an artist residency at G.S. Artists in 2019. Made using oak gall ink on raw cotton canvas, 3x4m, painted with a soft house broom and a child’s broom.
During the residency my 1.5 year old daughter would often join me, and I would put inks on her tricycle to make her own paintings, and create mine with her BRRM BRRMING around.
Perhaps they were mother and daughter brooms too?
My best,
Sarah x
From the studio No. 35
When creating artwork dye irregularities doesn’t matter so much as it adds visual texture, plus I paint on top of the dyed canvas. But a mark in the wrong place on a garment can look like an unwanted stain. It’s one reason people combine tie-dye or batik with natural dye, the blemishes become disguised. But I want to create a different look than we are used to with natural dye - it’s a challenge to create an even colour - something more chic, by using interesting colour combinations (I’m a colour geek) and beautiful planet conscious fabrics.
I have been taking steps to potentially collaborate with an innovative bio-colour brand based in London, with the aim of working towards involving them in natural dye production for the garments. They use both natural dyes (plants), have pioneered microbial colour and are able to scale up to dye longer lengths. We got as far as sampling colours on the fabrics that I am using, but I realised a few weeks ago that they weren’t going to make the deadline for me to be able get the fabric sent off to the manufacturer to make my jackets in time for Fashion On Earth at Bristol Cathedral. Yikes!
However, commissioning natural dyes are costly and their lead time can be weeks or even months to dye the fabrics. The process of natural dyeing is both time consuming and the raw materials cost so much more than what we are used to with petro-chemical based dyes. So for now, as I build SARAH POLAND, the dye work will be done from my studio.
I’ve spent the last two weeks working 14 hour days to get this done in time, dyeing lengths of corduroy and rib. It’s been intense and heavy work too, lifting 1.5m of wet chunky corduroy and moving around heavy pots of water. I invested in another big stainless steel dye pot so it can be heated with gas outdoors - setting up the dye studio for mid-scale production is a step-by-step process, planning infrastructure and equipment.
When creating artwork dye irregularities doesn’t matter so much as it adds visual texture, plus I paint on top of the dyed canvas. But a mark in the wrong place on a garment can look like an unwanted stain. It’s one reason people combine tie-dye or batik with natural dye, the blemishes become disguised. But I want to create a different look than we are used to with natural dye - it’s a challenge to create an even colour - something more chic, by using interesting colour combinations (I’m a colour geek) and beautiful planet conscious fabrics. And let’s face it, there are after all, enough tie-dyers out there.
It’s all worked out and the fabric, grades (different size patterns) and trims have gone off to the manufacturer. It hasn’t been without hiccups, trip ups and hurdles though. One hiccup, was that I dyed 4 lengths of fabric (6m) and discovered that the new 100 litre dye pot that I had invested in, had several small rust spots. It was an expensive pot and when it arrived it wasn’t the quality I was hoping for, but with time short I gave it a go.
When ferrous sulphate (iron rust) mixes with tannin (inherent in certain plant colours) it changes the colour - this created unwanted spots and I had to start again with new dye extract and to heat up a new vat of hot water. I have had a refund on the pot and will use the fabric elsewhere but when time was short and a risk of not having enough fabric, it did ad an extra stress! The fabric won’t be wasted though, at a later date I’ll dip it in a dye pot again and modify the colour.
If you’d like to follow my journey to create a natural dyed clothing brand in the UK and hear about product drops, events and exhibitions you can sign up here: subscribe
Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London + an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.
Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.