Dye or Die
How can we fight against the capitalistic fashion industry that shapes the way we dress and the colours we wear? As a small group of students from Wageningen University, we struggled to answer that question. There were too many layers to the problem, too many angles to consider. We narrowed down our focus to exploring alternative dye. Because of the Netherlands' long history with the ocean, we chose to focus on dye made from washed up seaweed. We made it to the finals of the Business Innovation Student Challenge Netherlands (BISC-NL) to pitch our idea. Although we didn’t move onto the European level, we won something just as valuable: connections. Because when it became clear that we did not have the ability to create a new dye by ourselves, the start-up Ilanga reached out. And so, we realized that talented innovators had already been driving initiatives that we could weave together. All around the world, researchers, industries, students, all were already exploring alternative dyes made from natural sources. In the Netherlands, Ilanga is creating dyes made of onion peels, a sustainable product otherwise discarded.
Threats of Today
In a world dominated by fast fashion leading to the production of toxic industrial waste, our group aimed to promote sustainable textile alternatives. Our eco-friendly wool is sourced from sheep performing ecosystem services by grazing on the Dutch dikes. We then color the wool with Ilanga’s onion peel-based dye. Along with harmful industry, our reality is one in which young people are constantly being separated and isolated. To combat social divisions, an organized knitting and crocheting workshop brought together university students and young people to learn a hands-on skill and weave together new connections as they thread their needles. Each square knit by the participants was woven together into a quilt representing the patchwork of people that make up our world, and how coming together allows us to overcome artificial divisions that drive the exploitation and abuse of nature.
Threads of Tomorrow
The Cast On project is thus a symbol of unity. It shows that connections are still at the heart of the resistance, and that our unsustainable approach to textiles can only be changed together. Just as the onion has many layers, our quilt has brought together actors from many levels: the sheep trimming pasture, Ilanga successfully exploring alternative dyes, the Grebbeveld Schapen & zo farm hosting our workshop, and the students who learned to knit, taking the time to reconnect with the fabric and themselves. All those aspects are represented in the squares knitted together into one blanket. Because, at the end of the day, it is only by connecting and joining our strength that we can make a difference.
