Another downside to natural dyes is limiting color ranges. The reason arsenic green became so popular was because there were no good alternatives. Unless I'm misremembering it eventually stopped being used because arsenic is incredibly toxic to humans and synthetic dyes were beginning to be developed. Pre synthetic dyes black was also a tricky color. Giving up my mostly black wardrobe would be heart wrenching.
oh this is so interesting?? thank u for adding this, i wonder why black is so hard considering there must be many organisms that produce a dark colour.. will have to go further down the research hole 😅
@@katierobinson historically it just lacks any colorfastness. Actually producing the dye isn't too difficult but it's unwashable. It's why you typically only see royalty and their courts wearing black.
Not only is this well produced it is also a disturbing eye opener on blatant waste/ pollution by a lot of the fashion industry. Thank you for giving me something else to worry over.😂😂😂 Take care Katie.
Hi, Katie, thanks for talking about it! I am so happy my comment got picked as a video idea! By the way in the matter of natural dyes and making the colors more permanent... How about we don´t? We could make redying them part of the fashion! like: did brick red not suit your skins undertone? No worries! Once it has faded out we can dye it Burgundy! (And the sun has bleaching properties so just leave them by a window for a couple of weeks... don't redye items that have obviuosly been bleached whith chemical reagants). Whats is the colour of the season? Baby blue for springtime again? Bring all those grayed out whites and we will make them trendy! Funky patterns just for this season? Temporary tye dye! Get a new one in the next season! We live in the era of Marketing and ultra fast fashion we should use it to our advantage 😈and since most of the water polutants aren´t the dyes themselves but the fixers it would be ok, plus it could funktion in water rotation from light colours to dark ones it would mean the remnants from the last colour could be easily hidden although the other way around if the dye is still working you coul get a lighter colour from it... or mix the waste water from some batches to make new colours... so many possibilities!
Want to attract snobs? Charge an exorbitant amount for a mid range artist to paint on it, it´s the ultimate luxury product a ultra expensive piece of art to signal your wealth AND has a expiry date? Want to attract snobs to syphon their wealth to do good into the world? Use a part of that money to fund the redying clothes intiatives for the plebes AND as advertisement to make them buy into it as a part of their lives. It might even turn some of them into proper artists too so that they can copy what they see worn by the celebs. Create an ultra luxury version by making it unique piece nobody else can have? Want to sell it to more people? Nobody else can have it at the same time! We can have court cases over it so the lawyers and the lawmakers can have a cut too... Somebody rich just make this a reality 🤑
it was a great comment!!!! really got me thinking about the disconnect we feel towards climate change/ fast fashion issues and how to bridge that gap 🫶 honestly this is such a beautiful idea!! just transforming the same garment over and over again, creating such a gorgeous story... so many possibilities!!
@@katierobinson I am glad it helped! And I had never thought about the ideas I listed here until you mentioned the pollutants not being the dyes themselves but the things that are used to fix them into the fabric. It makes me wonder how many ideas there could be to fix these sort of thing if people actually knew they were an issue at all, we all think differently but certain professions/niches tend to attract similar people and when it comes to ideas variety of backgrounds and lived experience matters. So I learned something new today AND wrote it on RU-vid so hopefully some AI chatbot or search engine will tell the idea to someone with the funds and time to make it a reality.
@@katierobinson And I am really loving your channel, I only leave comments when my brain cooks something good but I have watched pretty much everything. Although maybe I should comment more so you have more engagement 🤔
@@katierobinson Extra comment for engagement and to be funny: If we can convince some of the fast fashion Marketing evil geniuses to use their power for good... and profit, obviously, they are evil geniuses because they only care about profit and/or have left their moral values behind well tucked into bed so they can sleep at night. We could change the industry in a matter of years! Because, well, it is based on how desirable things are and trends. It also doesn't really take that much time to make clothes as, let's say buildings or machinery, nor does it have safety concerns or take eternally to deal with lawyers to put stuff in the market. The biggest driving force in trends and consumerism aren't the boards of directors or investors with shitty ideas for problems and even shittier ideas for solutions but the people that make those things marketable, desirable and worth a penny or a click. If some of them would pull a Senate and Metaphorically speaking "kill the Caesar" it wouldn't just be helpful but relatively easy too, so like maximum bucks AND fame for something that is still feasible/relatively grounded in reality. Not even all of them need to participate like just like when Caesar was killed the ones that did the deed got the ball rolling until everyone was in on it. Just a couple of success stories could really change the tide. Like "killing the Caesar" is just much more feasible in an industry like fashion where you technically shouldn't endanger any of your customers lives if you change things overnight and with a very quick turn over rate on what is cool and acceptable. Like skinny jeans were "it" for like ten years, then went out for like ten years and now they are back. The ever shortening trend cycle could become a blessing! It could be emulated by other relatively harmless in theory fast evolving industries like home-decor or book publishing or maybe even makeup and toiletries and I don't know what men like and consume unnecessarily in exesive amounts but with low risk but I am sure there must be some things too! Like "vegan cruelty free" has become something desirable and even expected but like for EVERYONE not just people that even before the product existed cared, or would be relatively easy to sway into caring but to make all people care or at least make it an explicit standard. A fashion revolution... turning into an overall evolution... and maybe even Physics will finally get its shit together and face all of the Problems we are creating, promoting and prolonging in this world even if it's just through being shamed into change by being noticeably lagging behind creative industries. It is working in giving people who are of the alphabet mafia protection and for women and racial/ethnic diversity too, why wouldn't it work with resources and impact accounting and accountability? I might have gone a bit too delulu there... but a girl can dream!
Hello! I am a fashion design student and just recently discovered ur channel! I think a big issue that I have been studying but doesn't get much attention is "the way color affects the footprint of our clothing". Some pigments are very toxic such as black. We should all be aware that especially in underwear black can be really dangerous in the long run! I don't think people are aware of how clothing gets its colors (toxic chemicals) and how much water is wasted in the process (specially with darker colors)! Love ur vids :)
thank u sm for watching!! completely agree about colour and how often it gets overlooked, guess it’s the leading cause of why ‘sustainable fashion’ is often washed out / beige-ish which i talked about in another video 😅
Katie, I’ve been really enjoying your videos!! ♡ I’m not caught up on all your more recent uploads so forgive me if you have talked about this in a previous video, but I’m wondering how you feel about buying synthetic or natural/synthetic blended clothing secondhand? Should we all be avoiding anything synthetic in favor of 100% natural fibers or is it not the worst thing since the clothing already exists and you are wearing something already made rather than going and buying something new? Would love to hear your or anyone else’s thoughts! xx
Oh I also want to hear about this one, specially because it is such a nuanced topic! Moreover because most of the places they are disposed in is either the ocean or the "global South" so it is another case of exporting Problems that come back in different ways to the north like microplastics in fish. Or incinerated in facilities near impoverished areas and then people of the community breath it in wich doesn´t just contribute to overall air pollution but to issues like acid rain too
Wearing something you already own or buy second hand is always better, than buying new. It's not like growing cotton (for example) is without issues, especially when it comes to water. If the garment is already out there, on the second hand market, have at it.
aww thank you sm for watching!! i think in general it's always better to buy something secondhand over new, bc no matter if it has synthetic blend or whatever you'll be doing more harm to the planet creating something new... however, when it comes to our health poly-fabrics can be really toxic & we should all avoid wearing as much as possible!! it's a tough one, i'd say really dependant on what you can access (buying secondhand natural fibres if available over poly) and your budget (maybe secondhand is what you can afford over new natural materials)
yes!!! we think the issue is over once we've donated clothing but it comes straight back to us in other ways, there's no escaping fast fashion's impact!!
While I admire you tackling tbe subject, you have a lot more research to do. Natural dyes - traditional, plant based ones- are terrible in terms of water usage than synthetic. Starting with amount of material needed that needs water to grow, then the rinsing, the mordants used and the actual dye material being polluting or straight up toxic. Just as synthetic dyes processes vary for different fibres, the vary for natural dyes - you can have very enviromentally friendly item dyed synthetically and very bad for the enviroment naturally dyed one. You are of course right about scale, the less we buy the better, as anything produced on a mass scale is not sustainable. My worry is that people find sustainable solutions and then scale them up which makes them as bad as the issues they try to solve.
hey! thanks for adding this info - I do feel like I expanded on the issues with natural dyes quite a bit and did cover the fact that they also use a lot of water (some research I did conflicts with the idea that they use more water, so maybe it was the source I use or it depends on the brand's process?) aswell as needing chemicals etc. Completely agree with the problem of scaling sustainable solutions and causing more harm than good!
