Organic Cotton Jeans Dyed with Traditional Woad
June 20, 2008 · Print This Article
You may have heard of woad before due to its historically inaccurate use as blue face paint in the Mel Gibson epic, Braveheart. Woad, which comes from a flowering plant, was overused and completely wiped out in the 16th century, so traders turned to the Far East for indigo, another blue dye, which is still used by most denim companies today.
A company called Dondup is bringing woad back from the dead with their new line of organic cotton jeans. Dondup, located in Italy, has begun growing the plant for use as dye. Woad – called Guado in Italian - once grew all over the Italian countryside, and Dondup is helping to reintroduce the plant. Dondup also uses other natural dyes for colors other than blue, including rose madder and blackberry.
Check out Dondup’s line of denim on their website.
Link [Dondup] via [Springwise]
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wow, that is so awesome! Thanks for writing about this. I love to hear about plants nearly wiped out being brought back. I would love to know more of the history.