Homegrown Colour Ltd. is a botanical textile dye producer currently pioneering the commercial upscale of British Indigo from organic Woad. The collaboration between natural dyer Justine Aldersey-Williams and organic farm consultant and inspector Mark Palmer, emerged in response to the increasing need for renewable textile dyes in the U.K. They’re trailing crops with a certified organic farm in North Yorkshire.
Mark Palmer has spent a lifetime in the food and farming industry. Originally from Wiltshire, he completed a degree in Agriculture at the University of Reading in 1986 and was initially involved in conventional farm management. He progressed to advising and managing a 400 acre organic vegetable farm in North Yorkshire, also working internationally with select crops while packing and processing vegetables for his own business.
In 2015 Mark started working for the Soil Association as an inspector covering the North of England and Scotland, visiting and auditing all types of businesses from field to fork. He’s qualified to complete Red Tractor and Pasture for Life inspections and with his own company, Systems4Food he offers organic inspections, farm sustainability audits and advisory work helping farms progress down the agroecological pathway.
Organic Farming Consultant and Soil Association Inspector, Mark Palmer
Justine Aldersey-Williams is a regenerative clothing activist, founder of the Northern England Fibreshed and a botanical dyer and qualified textiles teacher at The Wild Dyery.
She’s a sought-after consultant, speaker and guest lecturer who’s developed a comprehensive online introduction to natural fabric dyeing that’s reached thousands of students worldwide.
She has been growing plant dyes since 2014 and offers workshops at her studio on the Wirral peninsula.
Justine has helped clothing brands and dye factories integrate botanical dyes into their production systems and has helped preserve and popularise the heritage craft of botanical textile dyeing at both an artisanal and commercial levels.
Origins of Homegrown Colour
The international Fibershed movement which advocates for ‘local fibre, local dye and local labour’ has, since 2010, been highlighting both the harmful impacts of fossil-fuel derived dyes and the huge potential for both textile fibres and dyes to help restore soil health and biodiversity when grown agroecologically. The U.K. currently relies upon imported, synthetic pigments and dyes, despite having a long history of natural dye usage for thousands of years prior to the Industrial Revolution. However, the United Nations’ IPCC report emphasises the urgency with which humanity needs to divest from fossil fuel usage. Transitioning from non-renewable to renewable materials is simple future proofing for all commercial dyers which means both reverting to botanical sources and growing them locally in a way that restores the planet.
Justine founded the Northern England Fibreshed in March 2020 and was joined by Mark in 2023. The demand for commercial natural dyes, while still emergent, has been increased in part by her regenerative clothing project in collaboration with fashion designer Patrick Grant who is a judge on the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee. With a team of volunteers and cultural development programme SuperSlow Way, they planned to bring #HomegrownHomespun indigo linen jeans to market in time for the British Textile Biennial in October 2023.
While the commercial upscale with Patrick’s social enterprise Community Clothing has to date not been possible, Justine made British fashion history by producing the U.K.’s first pair of homegrown jeans in at least 120 years. The awareness raised by press coverage and a growing movement of advocates, is helping incentivise the reintroduction of textile crops within British agriculture.
Mark advised the Homegrown Homespun project during 2022 and helped design and test the pigment extraction kit. Due to the many lessons learnt during this process, they founded Homegrown Colour to continue exploring the upscale of British indigo.
Woad pigment production by Homegrown Colour is still in its test phase while the team establish the most efficient growing and processing systems, but their first harvest of ‘beta’ British Indigo will be launched at Groundswell in July 2024. They are excited to be continuing work with a synthetic dye factory who are keen to trial natural dyes.
