The San Francisco Chronicle writes: “Rebecca Burgess is on a quest for the perfect jeans. And by perfect, she means a good fit, but also something much deeper than that. Her denim has to have a good conscience.
Her dream pants need to be made without heavy metal-based synthetic dyes that pollute the environment, woven with non-GMO organic cotton, and constructed using materials sourced within 150 miles of her west Marin home. The garment must be handcrafted by local artists, not machines or destitute laborers in a faraway sweatshop.
It’s a tall order. So tall, she had to fill it herself by starting Fibershed — a community of Northern California farmers, ranchers and craftspeople willing to upend the textile industry with their own homestead clothing network…”
Burgess is also tapping into a 10-month natural indigo dye-making process. The Chronicle writes that “harvested indigo plants are stomped the same way wine grapes used to be, then put in piles to compost on a special floor made of stones, sand rice hulls and clay. The pile must be turned once a week for 100 days, then slowly fermented for about a month in water and lye made from wood ash and crushed lime.”
Fascinating story. Read the full article here.
Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle