World Wednesday: natural dyed textile from Rwanda

Hi friends! How are you doing? It's been a while since I last did a World Wednesday post. Sorry for that! To make it up, I have a beautiful one today. I was really impressed when I first read about the project and saw the photos.

Special fabrics have a long history in Africa. In West and Central Africa, the so called 'pagnes' are very popular. Colourful patterned textiles, made into dresses, scarfs and headwear. It's amazing how creative the designs often turn out and with how much grace the women wear them. But guess where the most popular textiles in West Africa come from.. Holland! Yes, no joking. The company Vlisco produces them. 

Fortunately, more and more fabric is designed and produced in Afric itself. In Rwanda, a remarkable project called Atelier Rwanda, explores design possibilities in the field of textile while using local fabric, available techniques and the skills to support the identity of Rwanda’s local culture.

Local basketry craftswomen, tailors and students colloborate to study natural dyeing in the context of contemporary textile production in Rwanda. I really liked the result. Look at that beautiful scarf! You know what it is? It's onion dyed cotton sewed with corn fiber. Can you believe it?

 

Please check out the whole story on DesignBoom.

Images: Atelier Rwanda

Do you like what you see? Do you know of similar projects?