Talking about Natural Dyes - Art + Fashion
From the studio No.42
It's July and the dye garden is bursting with fecundity - of both plants and ideas.
Here’s a very short video of part of the regenerative natural dye, food and medicine garden, it forms a part of the forest garden.
It's July and the dye garden is bursting with fecundity - of both plants and ideas.
Here’s a very short video of part of the regenerative natural dye, food and medicine garden, it forms a part of the forest garden.
Do you see it as chaotic and overgrown?
Or ABUNDANT?
This garden is full of flora and fauna. Full of dye, medicine and food plants. Here is a list of some of the plants in the video:
Budlia - colour
Rosa rugosa - food, medicine
Fennel - food, medicine, colour
Marshmallow - medicine
Sweet cicily - food
Tansy - colour, medicine
Mugwort - medicine
Elecampane - medicine
Evening primrose - food, medicine
Jostaberry - food
Comfrey - colour, food, medicine
Willow - food
Crab apple - food
It also has deep mineral accumulators and nitrogen fixers. Creating the edge of a forest garden. An edible forest.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY! - FASHION SHOW 17th AUGUST
And a little head’s up. SARAH POLAND is taking part in a fashion show during Aberjazz Jazz n Blues Festival 2025, at the beautiful venue Ffwrn in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.
There will be cheese and wine tastings with Feral Pig Wine , DJ’s spinning vinyl and fashion shows from SARAH POLAND, and Jolette Le Roux.
I’ll send more about tickets and details next week when I get the poster.
And there are so many more events to come to let you know about…LONDON, BRIGHTON, OXFORD.
Thank you for following my journey,
My best,
Sarah x
From the studio No.41
The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party is THE event on the art calendar.
Photographer and film maker Mark Lebon, known for his boundary breaking fashion photography in the 1980's and 90's, wears a commissioned SARAH POLAND kilt to the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party 2025.
The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party is THE event on the art calendar.
Photographer and film maker Mark Lebon, known for his boundary breaking fashion photography in the 1980's and 90's, wears a commissioned SARAH POLAND kilt to the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party 2025.
I met Mark originally back in 1998 when I was a stylist's assistant on a fashion shoot for iD magazine. We shot at Marks's super cool West London studio.
I met up with him again last year and gave a gift of a natural dyed piece of artwork. He commissioned me to make it into a kilt, non-conforming and deconstructed of course, I painted it, natural dyed it, made sock flashes and a kilt pin badge using off-cuts and thread-ends. He wore it this summer to both the opening event of Serpentine Gallery Summer Party AND Graces Mews Gallery launch (founded by his son, photographer Tyrone Lebon) in South London .
I’ve got an exciting collaboration happening with Mark too.
All will be revealed in time…
My best,
Sarah x
From the studio No.40
A SHORT INTRODUCTORY VIDEO ABOUT MY JOURNEY TO START A NATURAL DYED, LIMITED EDITION, UK MADE CLOTHING BRAND, PLUS A DIP INTO THE REGENERATIVE DYE GARDEN.
The why and what SARAH POLAND Art | Fashion is about and stands for as a clothing brand with sustainability and ethics at its core, with zero waste, circular design principles.
A SHORT INTRODUCTORY VIDEO ABOUT SARAH POLAND, A NATURAL DYED, LIMITED EDITION, UK MADE CLOTHING BRAND.
PLUS A DIP INTO THE REGENERATIVE DYE GARDEN.
The why and what SARAH POLAND Art | Fashion is about and what it stands for as a clothing brand with sustainability and ethics at its core, with zero waste, circular design principles.
It takes time to refine and articulate what a brand is about.
From looking after the soil and the people who tend it, to growing crops for textiles, to natural dyeing with no toxic waste, ethically manufacturing in the UK, to the wearer and the life of the garment with the possibility reinvigorate by offering a repair and re-dye service, to its end-of-life composted back into the soil to support healthy new growth.
Circular design.
Zero waste.
Non toxic.
No over production.
Hand crafted.
Made with care and quality in the UK.
Chic, wearable, fashion conscious natural dyed clothing.
See also:
Thank you for following my journey,
My best,
Sarah x
From the studio No.38
In the studio, this year for me is all about getting out there - gaining visibility, collaboration and well, just keeping on keeping on.
This month and probably next month too, will be a creative time. For many years I’ve wanted to create my own wardrobe, wear mostly my own designs.
You could call it a capsule collection, perhaps a mini collection, I’m just going to call it a wardrobe for now.
In the studio, this year for me is all about getting out there - gaining visibility, collaboration and well, just keeping on keeping on.
This month and probably next month too, will be a creative time. For many years I’ve wanted to create my own wardrobe, wear mostly my own designs.
You could call it a capsule collection, perhaps a mini collection, I’m just going to call it a wardrobe for now.
I’ve been working on the website this month too and have added a new page WHAT IS NATURAL DYE.
So if you’d like to know more about what they are, where they come from, a little history and some images of the plants, dye extracts and natural dyed cloth, click the link.
My mission this year is to get better at creating blogs and write about the wonderful qualities and beauty of natural dyes - it’s all about visibility and letting people know what I’m up to.
But for now, here’s a bit of fun with some contact sheets. I tried each jacket on…on top of the other, size 8 to 16…I couldn’t quite fit the 16 on too!
The background painting was made during an artist residency at G.S. Artists in 2019. Made using oak gall ink on raw cotton canvas, 3x4m, painted with a soft house broom and a child’s broom.
During the residency my 1.5 year old daughter would often join me, and I would put inks on her tricycle to make her own paintings, and create mine with her BRRM BRRMING around.
Perhaps they were mother and daughter brooms too?
My best,
Sarah x
From the studio No.33
In a David and Goliath scenario, I’ve been pressured into changing my natural dyed clothing brand name (before it’s even launched).
We hear about insecure, avaricious big companies working to squeeze out independents, putting pressure on them in some way with their big buck budgets.
Well, they object to my use of the word sonnet in the name SONNET by Sarah Poland.
So…I’ve got some news…an update from the previous excitement!
I’ve had a logo made to my design, a sign, woven clothing labels, business cards and bought domain names for SONNET by Sarah Poland.
However, in a David and Goliath scenario, I’ve been pressured into changing my natural dyed clothing brand name (before it’s even launched).
We hear about insecure, avaricious big companies working to squeeze out independents, putting pressure on them in some way with their big buck budgets.
Well, they object to my use of the word sonnet in the name SONNET by Sarah Poland.
It’s JD Sports. They have an in-house, fast fashion, sports wear line who use virgin plastic (polyester) and high production.
It’s called Sonneti.
They’re not using the word sonnet and there are no similarities between our brands or our ideas.
Yet they are able to set out a list of restrictions. However, I refuse to adhere to this bullying tactic.
I’ve had to take down my SONNET by Sarah Poland website and social media accounts …or they might get heavy.
It’s a pain and has cost me a lot development time and money, including buying domain names, woven garment labels, a sign, plus I hired a graphic designer to make the logo to my specification.
So I’ve rebranded to just my name, and I’m getting used to it already. I will see that there is a silver lining, and with both websites merging on to sarahpoland.com, art and fashion will be in the same place.
As an artist and designer, my painting and clothing design do relate to each other, and they both use colours extracted from plants, so perhaps it is for the better and the story continues...
SARAH POLAND - Natural dyed, UK made, limited edition clothing, will embody slow fashion at it’s best.
Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London, an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.
Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.
From the studio No.32
I’ve got some exciting news about a new project that I’ve been focused on developing over the last 4 months. If you saw my solo exhibition in 2023 (either in the real or on my video tour), you will have spotted an area showing a few pieces from a natural dyed clothing collection, with prints inspired by the art work. I am creating sustainable, ethical, designed, sourced and manufactured in the UK, clothing brand, SONNET by Sarah Poland. (This has since been rebranded to SARAH POLAND due to JD Sports objecting to the use of the word SONNET. They have an in-house, fast fashion, sports wear brand called SONNETI.)
I’ve got some exciting news about a new project that I’ve been focused on developing over the last 4 months. If you saw my solo exhibition in 2023 (either in the real or on my video tour), you will have spotted an area showing a few pieces from a mini clothing collection, natural dyed with botanical colour, with prints inspired by the art work. I am creating sustainable, ethical, designed, sourced and manufactured in the UK, clothing brand, SONNET by Sarah Poland.
If you'd like to follow my journey to create SONNET by Sarah Poland, receive product launch and pop-up invitations plus find out why the logo is like it is, you can sign-up on the website. www.sonnetbysarahpoland.com
You can also follow me on social media: Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook, Youtube, all sonnetbysarahpoland (now @sarahpolandstudio and sarah-poland)
Sunrise at the Do Lectures 2022.
I visited National Weaving recently, a label weaving factory which happens to be close to me here in West Wales. It was amazing and Very Noisy. They have many machines which weave names tapes, luggage straps, brand labels and badges and printed labels, each operated by a person (wearing ear defenders), they even have a vintage machine graveyard for spare parts and relics to one day restore.
I took a few videos of the looms which I’ll post next time, I’m currently on a weekend away at the Secret Dyery in Oxfordshire, learning about botanical ink screen printing with the wonderful Kate Turnbull - more on that next time too! I also visited a manufacturer in London last week to meet and talk over making a sample with them before production. It's pretty exciting And nerve-wracking!
Please help spread the news and if you know someone who might be interested, let them know.
My best,
Sarah