Cover Anh Truong Minh Giang (left), co-founder of Papaya Dyeing Workshop (Photo: provided by the interviewee)
Anh Truong Minh Giang (left), co-founder of Papaya Dyeing Workshop (Photo: provided by the interviewee)
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Deep blue once wrapped the working class in its protective embrace. Today, it presents untapped potential.
The word “indigo” comes from “Indikon” - meaning “from India” in Greek, describing the characteristic dark blue color of indigo pigment produced from a plant known as “green gold” of India (around the 16th and 17th centuries). Since the 3rd millennium, indigo dyeing techniques have been discovered and utilized by humans as a dye for everyday clothing, as well as formal ceremonial clothing. Indigo pigment is one of the first dyes to appear in the world and was once “gilded” in value for a long time, when it was still scarce. Inspiration from indigo dyed fabrics has increasingly spread to all areas of life. Up to now, the interior design industry has also taken the first steps in using indigo dyed fabrics as a sensual material.
Tatler Vietnam had a talk about indigo with Mr. Truong Minh Giang and Ms. Ngo Thu Huong - two founders of the Papaya Dyeing Workshop, to better understand indigo dyeing and the potential applications of this material in the interior design industry.
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Throughout the conversation, Mr. Giang and Ms. Huong always emphasized that this is a plant with an extremely strong “inner vitality”. In Vietnam, indigo dyeing has a long tradition, lasting for centuries. Indigo workers are always aware that their indigo vats contain a “life” that is gradually growing. I heard indigo artisans share that they “dialogue” with their indigo vats every day, with all their senses. They look, smell, taste, touch the deep blue liquid and listen to the thick, silent but also very vibrant sound inside. That is to say, indigo is not an inanimate pigment. While other natural colors are gradually disappearing, indigo still firmly exists in the lives of modern people. All thanks to the strong vitality that inherently originates from within. “The internal factor lies mainly in the fact that indigo farmers also use indigo for products serving daily life. For example, every year the Mong people dye indigo to make new clothes for their families during Tet," Giang shared.
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Above Ms Ngo Thu Huong, co-founder of Papaya Dyeing Workshop (Photo: provided by the interviewee)
Ms Ngo Thu Huong, co-founder of Papaya Dyeing Workshop (Photo: provided by the interviewee)
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The slow but profound development of indigo has unintentionally led to new opportunities. When mentioning indigo in interior spaces, it seems that an interesting topic of discussion is sparked. It is known that Du Du Dyeing Workshop participated in a project where indigo was assigned an important position - "soft partitions" made of indigo dyed fabric for the space of Pizza 4P's restaurant at COBI Tower, Saigon. Finding an indigo dyeing solution on 2,000 meters of raw silk is not easy, and it is even more difficult when having to balance different factors in the working process.
In the indigo dyeing process, from the beginning of fermentation, creating indigo, to the final product can take weeks. Next, the dyeing process needs to be repeated ten, twenty times or more so that the fabric “absorbs” enough color and achieves perfect durability. Time and dedication, meticulousness of the indigo maker have created the beauty and value of the works. However, dyeing indigo for an interior project is a different story. According to Mr. Giang, the factors that create the quintessential beauty of indigo are also the difficulties, especially when trying to put indigo into a process that requires strict time assurance like an interior project. Weather conditions, fermentation time, or other unnamed “troubles” also greatly affect the process. This requires the skill and experience of the indigo maker.
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Dyeing indigo for interior projects is more difficult than dyeing a regular work, but this material has suitable points in contemporary interior design. "Indigo has very good characteristics that are suitable for modern life in general, and suitable for interiors in particular. That is, it has very good deodorizing and antibacterial properties," said Mr. Giang. For the Pizza 4P's restaurant project at COBI Tower, Du Du Dyeing Workshop chose raw silk from Dai Hoa silk, Nam Cao craft village, Thai Binh to weave 2,000 meters of fabric for the indigo fabric partition of the project. After considering the functionality, raw silk is the most suitable material for the restaurant space, with the fire-resistant properties of natural silk fibers, combined with the good deodorizing and antibacterial properties of indigo dye, it is the most optimal solution. Coincidentally but also very intentionally, raw silk is the material that "absorbs color" and retains color well, helping to speed up the dyeing process. Just as raw silk has “protected” the Vietnamese body in ancient costumes, this material has now become an elegant “coat” that adorns the sophisticated culinary space, conveying the concept of “mindful eating” that Pizza 4P’s always wants to aim for in its restaurants. In addition, the material texture of raw silk and indigo also contributes to evoking in diners feelings about the nativeness of these raw material regions.
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According to the founder of Du Papa, “uniqueness” has made indigo different from industrial colors, even from other natural colors. If you pay close attention, you will see that each indigo dyed work has a different color, no two are the same. “Indigo is very difficult to imitate in industry,” Ms. Huong affirmed. Therefore, “there are still many things to do with indigo.” The door to indigo’s potential is increasingly open, besides technical developments, indigo has also been successfully tested on other surfaces such as wood, leather, and most recently in Tokushima – the capital of indigo in Japan, it has also been applied to construction paints, according to Ms. Huong.
Choosing the base material, whether silk, natural fibers, or wood, is very important. The chosen material itself needs to have cultural and historical depth to match the design idea, “not just go to the store and randomly choose a fabric”. According to Du Du, indigenous materials will be the most coherent discourse to express a design that requires cultural depth in space. However, choosing the base fabric to dye for an interior project requires more than “meaning” and “emotion”. The choice always requires asking the question, “why do we choose this fabric in terms of function?”, “why choose this wood in terms of emotion?”, “how does this material meet the requirements of the investor and the design unit?”. When choosing the right material with a balance between aesthetics and function, the project will become more sophisticated, while helping people feel comfortable in the space.
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Above Indigo-dyed fabric production process for an interior project (Photo: provided by the interviewee)
Indigo-dyed fabric production process for an interior project (Photo: provided by the interviewee)
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Few people know that “indigo” is not the name of a single plant species, but that there are many different species of plants that bear the indigo color, growing in different climatic conditions. Traditional indigo dyeing is inherently a sustainable process, from the cultivation of raw materials, to the stages of indigo making, dyeing, and drying, using manual methods without causing a major impact on the environment and nature. In the context of climate change in an extreme direction, indigo dyeing techniques become more important and suitable than ever. Finally, the functional and emotional properties of indigo become the potential for this mysterious blue to shine more and more in many fields, especially the interior industry, when almost everything in this industry is put on the scale of sustainability in today's era.
Article published from the original article in the print publication Tatler Vietnam October 2024 - Family & Legacy
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Photography: Đu Đủ Dyeing Factory
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