Cherry red, lavender blue, lime… We all want to wear the AW25 colours − but at what cost? Anyone who has watched the 2006 film about high-fashion publishing, The Devil Wears Prada, will know about the power of colour in fashion. Colour evokes a wide range of emotions and is used to set trends which in turn are used to sell clothes. But what hides behind this week’s new colour? What chemicals are combined to create that perfect shade of cerulean?
What would you rather have: A purple jersey made from snails or a red cardigan made from carcinogens? Since clothing labels don’t list dyes or chemicals − unlike cosmetics − it’s up to us to keep informed.
Where colour comes from
Humans are obsessed with colour − and we’ve always gone to great lengths to harness and copy nature to decorate ourselves and our homes.
Early dyes came from what we found in nature − royal purples from snail secretions, indigo blue most commonly sourced from the Indigofera tinctoria plant.
Synthetic dyes changed the game: more variety, consistency, and longer-lasting vibrance.
Synthetic dyes
About 90% of clothes use synthetic dyes, which require lots of water and chemicals to make sure they don’t fade.
Not all synthetic dyes are harmful − but some are. And they’re used with very little regulation.
Azo dyes
Azo dyes are the baddies of the dye world. Toxic, cheap, and way too common. When they break down, they release chemicals that can cause skin irritation and cancer. These dyes are:
- Used to make vivid reds, yellows, and browns
- Make up 60-70% of fabric dyes
- Banned in the EU, China, Japan, India, and Vietnam
Who is harmed by these dyes?
Wearers: We absorb dyes through our skin which can lead to allergic reactions, hormone disruption, and cancer risk.
Workers: The people who make our clothes inhale toxic particles, which can cause respiratory and skin irritation.
Waterways: Water is polluted with hazardous dye effluent − contaminating drinking water and killing wildlife.
Communities: People living near factories lose access to clean drinking water, fishing for their livelihoods, and to control over their health.
Natural dyes
Nowadays, manufacturers and designers want to produce colours using more sustainable methods, incorporating sustainable dye methods and natural dyes. Natural dyes are complicated. Unless you’re very careful, they:
- Still use lots of water
- Colours fade more easily
- Some mordants (binding agents) are toxic
- Often incompatible with synthetic fabrics
Potential solutions, like waterless dyeing, are being developed.
Dyeing double standards
Beauty brands list their ingredients. Of course they do − that stuff sits on your skin all day… See where we’re going with this?
Clothing labels don’t tell us what chemicals are used − even though they can cause skin reactions, asthma, cancer, and infertility.
Shein and Temu have been caught multiple times selling clothes with illegal levels of toxins.
Worldwide
Just as we aren’t told what chemicals are added to our clothes, we are rarely told where these chemicals are being added. Fashion has a globalised supply chain and it’s common for each step of production to take place in a different part of the world.
Clothing labels will say where something was sewn, but not where the fabric was dyed. Because of this, we don’t know what impact the dye methods have on what communities.
What you can do
Do the best you can with the information you have available:
- Wash before you wear any new clothing
- Buy from companies you trust and that have a good reputation
- Certifications like bluesign, Oeko-Tex Standard 100, and GOTS protect against toxic chemicals, including toxic dyes, in clothing
- Read To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick – and How We Can Fight Back by Alden Wicker
Sources
- Alden Wicker, The Guardian World Economy Forum
- Business Tech
- CNN
- Earth Day
- Fibre2Fashion
- Good On You
- Health and Safety in the Textile Dyeing Industry
- Leather USA
- Le Monde
- Project Cece
Credit
- Feature image by Linn Legros on Unsplash
- Read more of our Explainers here
