Our Story
A small workshop, natural dyes, and the conviction that good fabric outlives fast fashion.
A small workshop, natural dyes, and the conviction that good fabric outlives fast fashion.
Cotton & Indigo began in 2016 in a rented garage with a single plastic vat of fermenting indigo leaves. Rachel had spent two years studying natural dye techniques in Japan, and Ellie had just left a career in fashion buying because she could not stomach the waste any longer.
The first year was trial and error. Batches that turned out muddy. Fabric that bled in the wash. A workshop that smelled strongly enough to worry the neighbours. But by the end of that year, they had figured out a reliable fermentation process and produced their first run of table linens that actually held colour.
Eight years later, the garage is long gone. We work from a converted mill space where we run three active dye vats, a set of floor looms, and a cutting and sewing station. The team has grown to five people, but the process remains hands-on at every stage.
We source organic cotton from certified growers in India and Turkey. Our linen comes from a family-owned flax farm in Belgium. The indigo is either grown locally (in summer) or imported as dried leaf from a cooperative in Senegal.
Everything is dyed in-house, sewn in-house, and shipped directly to customers. There is no middleman, no warehouse, and no mass production run.
The decisions that shape how we work.
We do not use synthetic colourants. Every pigment in our workshop comes from a plant, a mineral, or a fermentation process. It takes longer, but the colours age better and the water leaving our studio is safe.
We produce in quantities of 20 to 50 pieces at a time. This lets us maintain quality, reduce waste, and give each cloth individual attention during the dye process.
We know the name of every farm and mill that supplies our fibre. We publish our supply chain annually and visit our growers in person at least once a year.