Colour we DYE for – indigo dye workshop
Focus – Circular fashion through reuse and refurbishing of waste clothing.
Conversation on the fashion industries dye processes that contaminate waterways.
A look into ancient indian craft techniques and how we can use them to rejuvinate our clothes in lieu of consuming more.

The workshop will be hosted by Vogue Xchange – a social enterprise focused on bringing more ethical and sustainable choises in our fashion markrt in Malta. The group identified for this workshop is a emerging eco tourist operator, Very Valetta, who are focused on local experiences that are sustainable in nature. to fit in with our islands vision of becomming a sustainable tourist destination.

Two to three hour workshop held at the Valetta Design Cluster
Sustainable methodologies and natural indigo dyeing workshops. The goal is to bring awareness about fast fashion’s manipulative marketing stratergies that encourage overconsumption of new trends in colour and style on a weekly basis and how this impacts the environment, particularly our water systems when it comes to the water processes in production ( dyeing and bleaching) To encourage slow fashion and reuse participants will bring an end-of-life T-shirt or garment and will revive it with a natural indigo dye process. The workshop not only educates participants about natural dyes, toxic chemical dyes and revival of ancient craft but also that garments can get regenerated and put back into the cycle – circular economy.

Bleaching dyeing and finishing processes in textile manufacturing are the the most polluting production phase of textile production, exessive amounts of water are required and contaminated these processes. Clean water, a vital nessesity for life is becomming a global scarcity. As industries continue to develop, waterways become increasingly polluted, damaging vital ecosystems and threatening global water quality. Linea economic development and consumerism have a negative environmental impact with textile manufacturing being a primary culprit in water quality degradation.

Chemical and synthetic dyes are not only harmful to water systems, they also contain sulphur, chromium compounds and heavy metals like copper, arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, nickel, and cobalt. Clothing is also laced with finnishing agents such as formaldayde and anti funal compounds these get absorbed into the skin when wearing a garment and are carcinogenic and mutagenic.

Natural plant dyes are an endemic resource that powered the European textile industry for centuries until the advent of synthetic pigments that led to their abandonment. Today, interest in natural dyes is growing again and indigo dyeing craftmanship is being revived as a sustainable local practice.

Salvage Workshop
Focus on circularity but salvaging harware and components from clothing that can no longer continue in the cycle.
Our conversation will be about extraction of raw material and use of fossil fuels in production and how that is no longer viable for the planet. We will also delve into the end of use and how to rethink the way we take-make-discard and the waste generated.

this workshop will be be hosted by Vogue Xchange for The Foundry and held in Gozo.
This is a free voluntary workshop where everyone can participate and no skills are required.
All items salvaged will be for sale to raise funds for the workshop space and used in other upcycling projects.

Billions of tons of garments go to landfill each year with only a small fraction getting recycled. The reason why so much clothing is not recyclable is because of the material not only in the textiles but also the components- like metal and PET plastic buttons. Countries like Chilie, Ghana and India. There is a lot of funding going into innovation of new textiles but not enough focus on the other components that are inhibiting the potential for recycling of textile waste.