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Part and parcel of being in the sustainability space in a dynamic, fast-paced world is being constantly challenged to never let sustainability become stagnant or dull. It pushes us at Indosole to explore the possibilities, and remain a relevant catalyst in propelling sustainability. There is beauty behind this, as it eventually allows us to create beautiful footwear for our community.
Whilst designing the SS21 collection, we wanted to reimagine the Indosole product by creatively merging our recycled tire soles with a beautiful natural product. We ended up creating our unique natural dye Indigo Drip Fabric Slides, which hold a story just as special.
Indigo Comes From The Tarum Plant Leaves
The tale begins in the backyard garden of our natural dye house, where Indigo leaves, also known as Tarum in Indonesia, are home-grown. It is one of the original sources of Indigo dye, which is obtained by processing the leaves.
Natural Dyed Indigo Yarn
It involves 48 hours of submerging the leaves in water, 6 hours of oxidation and finally 2 weeks of fermentation kick-started by the addition of limestone. This complex process converts a substance naturally present in the plant to rich blue dye paste.
Plum sugar and water is added to the yield of paste, in which fabrics are dipped an hour at a time. After a maximum of 8 dips, the textile is rinsed with vinegar and an organic soap from Java. Albeit time-consuming, the results are absolutely astounding.
The happily ever after turns into a new beginning - the excess water from dyeing is cleansed using the Eceng Gondok plants. They absorb the colourful dyes from the water, functioning as a natural filter. This water returns to the garden, giving new life. This crucial step embodies how Indosole aims to limit toxicity, just like how we developed our own Sole Engineered Tire Technology (SETT) to eliminate tire waste from production.
The entire production process stays within our natural dye house, virtually eradicating any need for pollutive fuels in mid-production transportation.
Narrating the story behind our Indigo Drip Fabric Slippers is important to us as we value transparency, and it attests to the fact that we do not lose sight of our core values, no matter how we reinvigorate our products or production.
As the world around us is evolving, Indosole is bound to evolve with it, but we continue to put careful thought into our craft and design - and we are just getting started.
