The application of plant dyeing technology in the full dress design

By Yan Hongying,Zhao Bing

Abstract：

The plant dyeing technology has a history of thousands of years in China， its brilliant color with natural material， it can be an effect that chemical dyes cant be. This technology should be widely studied and applied. This paper provides perfect introduction to the practical design works； it seeks more expression of plant dyeing through the tentative application of plant dyeing technology in the full dress design and with the combination of traditional dyeing skills and modern design， it will also provides a new thought for the diversification and innovation of design. Key words：

Plant dyeing， Design practice， Practical experience

Plant dyeing， which uses natural plant dye to color the textiles， has a history of thousands of years in China. Though plant dyeing has a mellow and brilliant color and its innocuity， it faded away from peoples vision because its manual made with complex process， and it has been replaced by chemical stain technology with the background of industrialization. This process has attracted attention again with the rise of the ecological awareness in recent years. How to inherit this intangible cultural heritage， adapt to modern production and integrate into peoples lives is a very interesting topic for a fashion designer.

My graduation design focused on custom-made dresses， using plant dyeing and embodying elegant and soft style， to reach the effect of chemical dyes cannot achieve so that it will enhance the appeal of culture. This design and its application is an attempt of plant dyeing technology. Through the combination of traditional dyeing technology and modern design， more expression of plant dyeing are re- searched. It also provides a way of thinking for the diversification and innovation of design.

“Grass and tree Dyeing” is called plant dyeing. It extract the dye from the root， stem， leave and peel of plants to color the textiles. Early as the Neolithic Age， the people began to use the natural plant dye as they were using mineral palette. The amazing dyeing skill is an important condition for the achievement of “the country of hats and clothes”.

The main plants used in the plant dyeing technology are： madder， safflower and sappan in red； hispid arthraxon， gardenia， ginger and flos sophorae immaturus in yellow； green rhamnus utilis（also known as Chinese green）； blue grass（indigo）； black acorn and Chinese tallow trees. It can derive infinite colors through mordant dye， dye toning and resist-dyeing. Due to the different molecular structure of natural dyes， the dyeing methods vary according to different fibers （plant fibers and protein fibers）. Dyeing process mainly includes： direct dyeing， mordant dyeing， redyeing， resist-dyeing and the list goes on； mordant dyes include alum， copperas， blue vitriol， etc.

The application of plant Dyeing in modern apparel brand

Plant dyeing technology is still used today. Many designers are trying to apply this technology in current design. The following brands and design works are some of the examples： Chu He Ting Xiang， designer Chu Yan； Exception， designer Ma Ke； apparel brand “A Life On The Left”and so on. At the same time， many international brands have started to focus on this environmental friendly technology， such as the famous Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto， ， Rechenberg， a quality apparel customization brand in Germany， and so on. Now that Plant dyeing is still hand-made， it gives a lot of limitations in the industrialisation of garment production. How to adapt it to industrial production should be the direction of our future efforts.

But， the application of plant dyeing has limitation due to its special characteristics on the market. Most of the apparel are the customized， therefore， we need to find more possibilities for its application.

The application of plant dyeing in the practice of full dress design

Next， I will share my experiences in design practice and operation.

Theme and color design

I selected the fairy tale “Mermaid” as the theme of this design， taking the sea as the background to tell a story of a naive girl of the sea. She sublimates to innocence and kindness after suffering injury and resistance， darkness and confusion. The whole design contains five stages that are five sets of clothing series， which are “Serenity - Distress - Resistance -Trance - Returning”.

In this whole design， the color plays a key role in the theme expression. Based on the dominant hue of blue ocean color， in order to represent the different ideas presented in different stages of the story， the color designs are ： “Serenity” – Cyan of Spring Sun， the light and transparent blue-green color shades is to show the girls sunshine； “Distress” - blue-purple color shades which blends purple and a little cyan in main tone to show the danger； “Resistance” - black and blue color has the darkest color in the five suits， give the impression of a storm in the ocean， expressing struggle and resistance；“Trance” - purple-grey color shades， gray represents the entanglement in soul and purple expresses hesitation， rendering a desolate color； “Returning”， ending with white， expresses that all things return to quiet and peaceful state.

The operation of plant dyeing technology

In the garment production of this series， the fabric dyeing is a repeated adjustment process， which account for the most of the workload. As the theme color of this design is grays with blue tone， plant dyeing is the best way of expression. Regardless of whether its solid colors or tertiary colors with gray， plant dye has high quality， the colors are mellow， brilliant and pure. This is what chemical dyeing cant achieve. Meanwhile， the color is not stable and requires repeated experiments and careful color-matching. To meet the design effect， except a little amount of chemical dyes were used， all textiles were plantdyed by myself.

Getting the color — “Cyan of Spring Sun”

The first dress “Serenity” has cyan as its dominant hue. It is a blue-green color with high brightness ， translucence. The color is mainly resistdyed with of chlorophyll and sky blue. These colours are produced by blending plant dyes with chemical dyes which is also a new attempt. The main dyeing material of the green part is chlorophyll， translucent aqua blue is a chemical dye. To get light blue， the plant used to extract the dye must be fresh indigo plant， but the indigo plants have its growth time limit. The dyeing process is in winter and its impossible to get fresh leaves of indigo plant， so it can only use chemical dyes instead.

Blue-purple with gradient dyeing

The color of the second dress “Distress” is blue-purple. How can we get a color shade that blue in purple， purple does not overwhelm blue？ After reading lots of books and experimenting， I worked out two different schemes. The first scheme： resistdye with sappan and indigo， the color is rich and difficult to control the shade. When using sappan to resistdye， the color got is not ideal. In the second scheme， I selected purple cabbage as the main purple dyeing material. The dye of purple cabbage was extracted twice by boiling dyeing method. But the dye solution precipitated was light blue and have a difficulty to fix the dye on textiles. When the temperature of dye solution is controlled between 50 - 60 degrees and alum is used as mordant to fix the color， a strong snow-blue color can be obtained， but it is not ideal. With several unsuccessful attempts， I sought advice from Mr. Huang Ronghua， a wellknown expert in plant dyeing. Following the guidance from Mr. Huang， the gradual dyeing and dip dyeing methods have finally resulted satisfactory dyeing effect. The method is as follows： first， dip the fabric in indigo for blue gradient dye- ing， then dip the part that will be dyed as purple in the red dyeing solution prepared by sappan and gallnut. The ratio of the concentration of dyeing solution and water is 3 ： 7 with alum as mordant. After 10 minutes of dyeing， squeeze out the fabric to half-dry and hang the fabric out， so that the dye solution converges to the middle from the sides. This dyeing effect is like the eaves after the rain， so it is called “roof leak mark”. The final dyeing effect presents both warm and cold together， and the color is very changeable. It has a mellow and translucent feeling that chemical dyes can not match.

Purple grey with gradient dyeing

The dominant hue of the fourth set of dress “Trance” is purple-grey. It use the leaves of redroot gromwell as the main dyeing material. Purple can be found in few direct sources in natural dyeing. The most common sources are lac insects and root of gromwell， however， the extraction of lac insects is very complex and can not achieve the ideal dyeing effect， so it is not appropriate. The second method is resist dyeing. First， soak the fabric in alkaline blue indigo. Then take it out and wait 10 minutes until its fully oxidized. Wash the fabric and put it into acid dyeing solution extract from sappan for resistdyeing. Although this color shade can achieve the ideal effect， the shade is difficult to control. So we decided to use the turquoise blue， purple and grey dyes from chemical dyes to make a solution， then， using the leaves of redroot gromwell to resistdye to achieve the desired color effect.

From this experiment， we found when dyeing a fabric with a length of about 1m， it is easy to dye evenly because of its small area and high controllability. When dyeing 3m long fabrics， because of the large area， its very easy to die unevenly if the drying process is not handled timely. Later we tried multi-layer dyeing on these fabrics dyed unevenly， to adjust by deepening the color. When the color is deep enough， the uneven mark will gradually fade away. Finally， after several test， the ideal color shade was obtained.

After the later decoration adjustment and other finishing process， my own design series “Mermaid” is finally completed.

Anyway， through this design practice， it has been proved that the plant dyeing technology has a good future. Especially it will become more popular in the high and middle-grade customized clothing. This requires designers to explore widely in practice， accumulate experiences and strive to improve.