Indigo

    That beautiful blue color that is so representative of rebellion, youth, Levi’s, James Dean, and classic American fashion, isn’t even American. This blue that was popularized with denim clothing is based off natural Indigo dye. Even the American flag was originally dyed with indigo dye. However, this precious dye has origins halfway around the globe, in India.  

This bright, almost sapphire blue, became so valuable it was used as currency (Kumar 2016). The precious dye comes in several shades and brightnesses depending on the dying technique. The plant Indigofera tinctoria, endemic to India and tropical zones in Africa, was traditionally cultivated to produce indigo dye for fabrics (Kumar, 2016). There is evidence that people in East Asia, India, and Africa have been using indigo dyes for more than 5,000 years. To naturally make the dye, several pounds of indigofera leaves must be collected and then soaked in water to free up the glucose compounds. Since the plant consists of only 2-4% indigo dyestuffs, an enormous quantity of leaves need to be gathered. Indigo color isn’t naturally found in the plant; however, when indican (an amino acid in the plant that is released when soaked in water) starts to ferment, the result is a yellowing of the water. The mixture is then left to evaporate and oxidize, leaving the blue indigo pigment. This pigment can then be made into hard cakes, then ground into the much loved fine blue powder (Ricketts, 2016).

Woman soaks indigo plants (left), resist-dye cloth (above)

        

Since blue dyes and fabrics were rare during the Middle Ages, indigo rapidly became known as blue gold. The color was so important that Isaac Newton named one of the five original primary colors after it (Balfour, 2013). Being such a rare commodity, wearing and owning indigo dyed fabrics signified wealth and high socioeconomic status. Imagine if we based social status off of who owned blue jeans and who didn’t, nearly everyone would be considered royalty these days. Once imported to North America in the 1700s, it quickly became a cash crop. Indigo became an increasingly valuable plant and was exported heavily from Japan and Africa during the 1800s (Balfour, 2013). However, the popularity of the dye and mass production of Indigo plants created social issues for farmers and traders. In North America, Indigo plantations used slave labor and supported slavery in the Americas. Slavery was also connected to indigo production in India under the East India Trading Company. The social controversies historically surrounding indigo dye foreshadow the state of indigo in present day.

Traditionally, this coveted indigo dye was used in what we now commonly know as tie-dye. In Japan, the indigo dying process is known as Shibori (Ricketts, 2016). Japanese artisans would fold, stitch, and tightly knot or compress and clamp fabrics before soaking them in an indigo bath to produce a resist dyed fabric. In Nigeria, Yoruba women would similarly tie, knot, and stamp fabrics to produce patterns using indigo dye. Unfortunately the tedious processes, skillful handicraft, and cultural knowledge associated with indigo dying have been obscured by modern day synthetics and fast fashion. How many DIY tutorials have you seen for indigo tie-dying? How many dresses and shirts have you seen with the clean Shibori-esque patterns of blue and white? Yet how many of these tutorials or designers credit their work to native Indian, Japanese, or African textile workers?  

We go about buying deep indigo jeans and indigo dyed scarves and dresses, but few will remember where this dye originated, and who started the craft. Many communities have had their indigo based designs copied and stolen, without due credit or recognition. On top of that, indigo is rarely produced naturally anymore. Most indigo has become synthetic dye, chemical rather than plant based. Since it is quicker and cheaper to produce indigo dye synthetically, even countries like Nigeria and Japan, who started traditional indigo dying, have converted to synthetic dye. This creates a gap between past and present cultures, erasing and burying much of the knowledge surrounding natural indigo production. 

Nigerian women dry sheets of indigo dyed cloth

                      

Sutara Nitenson 

Works Referenced

Balfour, P. (2013). Indigo: From Bengal to Blue Jeans. Magazine of the Arts, 65(2), 38-49.

Kumar, P. (2016). Plantation Indigo and Synthetic Indigo. Comparative Studies in Society ad History, 58(2), 407-431.

Ricketts, R. (2016). The Blue Thread: Connecting Community through Indigo in the US and Japan. Textile: The Journal of the Cloth and Culture, 14(1), 110-121.