Celestial Indigo
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The first national meeting of textile and clothing professors took place in Madison, Wisconsin in June 1959. With a mission to advance excellence in education, scholarship and innovation, and their global applications, the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) is a professional and educational association of scholars, educators, and students in the textile, apparel, and merchandising disciplines in higher education.
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Celestial Indigo
Sherry Haar and Emily Andrews, Kansas State University
Tracey Martin, Threads of Evolution, Scottsdale, AZ
Jeanne Hankerson, SJ Couture, Scottsdale, AZ and Bianca Sanford, FABRIC, Tempe, AZ
Keywords: capping, indigo, fructose, fermentation vat, refashion, sustainability
The dress, Celestial Indigo, was the result of a collaborative effort between a book author, designer, stitcher, and natural dyers. Tracey Martin (2017), author of Sustainable in Stilettos, is passionate about a book cover’s intrinsic messages. Celestial Indigo, created for Martin’s book cover, holds messages of refashioning, versatility, natural color, and collaboration. A halter dress was refashioned by designing a skirt overlay from silk chiffon torn into strips and through coloration with indigo. The indigo vat was a fermentation vat with fructose as the reducing agent and calcium hydroxide for alkalinity. Sustainable advantages of the fructose fermentation vat compared to a chemical vat are no harsh chemicals (i.e., thiourea dioxide and lye) and elimination of heat beyond initial reduction. To protect undyed and dyed areas, as well as manage the gown bulk, fabric sections were capped with plastic and secured with rubber bands and string.