field notes | natural dyes | aug 15 2026

Nirox. UNI FORM’s performance with ecological artist Annegret Affolderbach, who has spent some time pounding rock to a fine powder of different shades – a colour palette of winter highveld, earthy and charred grasslands. 

The powder became dye. In a three-hour session, Affolderbach performed the dyeing process of the cotton, set to become part of an upcoming collection.

Rock sketch, Ruby Valentine

Recall 

– UNI FORM’s founder and creative director Luke Radloff won the inaugural Azzedine Alaïa Foundation x Orveda’ prize in 2023, a one-month residency granting access to the foundation’s archives in Paris of important 20th century couture pieces. He then presented a mini collection at LA Foundation Azzedine Alaïa during Couture Week made in response to what he studied there.

About UNI FORM

– The brand describes their work as ‘emotional tailoring’ in reference to the toll of making luxury pieces in this territory, the connection we have to clothing and how we express and carry ourselves.

Quick Google: 

– A reported 17–20 % of industrial water pollution stems from textile dyeing and fabric finishing treatments, presenting a complex environmental challenge for the industry. – Science Direct

– SA has a small but active natural dye movement: Meuse Farm in Hout Bay grows a dedicated dye garden (indigo, madder, marigold); Mother of Gao’s Katlego Mokwena works with botanicals and tea; Tinyiko Makwakwa, a contemporary textile artist; Ira Bekker, a botanical dyeing expert who has collaborated with Naked Ape.

– Stone-ground pigment is less common than plant dye – most natural dye lean toward botanical rather than mineral.

We watched what the work costs – hours, hands, repetitive motions, a body bending and twisting and turning under a blazing hot sun.