Chromophobia

To live, to dye

Hey there. This is the last episode of the year. Thanks for reading (and listening too maybe? maybe not!)

I hope you bundle up and stay safe and stay sane and stay vigilant. I feel like I’m sort of falling apart at the seams? It’s bad out there.

But at least this last topic of 2023 is one I’ve been meaning to cover forever. COLOR. And specifically- dye.

In fashion, color is very obviously a signifier of class. To use some extreme examples:

99 Cent by Andreas Gursky. Obviously I know Gursky would retouch his photos, but you get the point.

The Row’s flagship New York store. The salespeople followed me around wringing their hands.

Black and white seems like the definition of chic. If you wanted to be sophisticated and mature, you could just wear black and white all the time. Which is so interesting, because, of course, color used to be the signifier of wealth:

This dress from the Met collection was made before synthetic dyes. This would have been bonkers expensive- green dye was often made as a variant of indigo

And then, during industrialization, dye became “democratized.” Which is to say it could be made cheaply. And dangerously. Especially in the case of green, which was made out of arsenic.

This dress in the collection of Toronto Metropolitan University- has tested positive for arsenic. It would probably do very very bad things to your skin if you put it on.

But Arsenic Green was just the beginning. Everything changed when this hottie came along:

William Perkin in 1870 with his second wife, Alexandrine. Damn, Will!

When he was 18 years old, sexy chemist William Perkin was trying to synthesize a treatment for malaria out of coal tar, and came up with a beaker of brilliant purple.

…which was actually no big deal. Scientists came up with weird artificial colors all the time. What was different was that Perkin was like “oh, I could sell this stuff.” And his color, Mauve, became a bona fide sensation.

This is a scan from Mauve by Simon Garfield

Mauve unleashed a torrent of new colors- also all made from coal tar. Which led directly to the world we live in today, where everything - every artificial color- seems to be made with some kind of petrochemical.

DOUBLE TROUBLE: Mauve AND Arsenic Green!

Mauve shoes at the Bata Shoe Museum!

As soon as color came to be seen as common- even vulgar!- and not to mention potentially unhealthy - the backlash began. The turn against color.

The Kobayashi Color Chart

If you’re looking for safe colors, I recommend all of the cool NYC brands that work with the wonderful dyehouse I visited, Not Just Lace. Among them are Assembly, Judi Rose, Dion Lee, and Collina Strada

And if you’d like to look at some of the totally undyed textiles I mentioned- these are amazing- you can buy some directly from Sally Fox’s site

This baby blanket has ZERO dye in it. This is all undyed cotton

Another place you can buy Sally Fox’s cotton is one of my all time favorite boutiques in the world: Oakland’s Kosa Arts. (I wear their double wrap dress CONSTANTLY)

Kosa sells garments like this Sally Fox cotton plaid that again- has NO DYE!

The company that is dying without water is called Dyecoo. And if you’d like to hear more from the wildly charming Matthew Shifrin, his podcast is called Blind Guy Travels- and its on the best network in the world. Radiotopia.

Radiotopia is the best. They’re basically a non-profit who exists to support independen audio makers. And they can’t do it without their donors. Their annual fundraiser is is here! Donate today to support Articles of Interest.

I hope to make more episodes next year- but I don’t know exactly how many or when! These things take a long time to bust out. But there will be more. Please stay tuned?

Thank you. So much.