While continuing my screen printing process I was trying to figure out what sort of colours would create the best response. I questioned whether there was a demand of certain colours in the textile industry, whether there was specific colours that were desired over others, whether there's colours that easily go to waste, which colours we prefer to see, whether a more appealing colour lives a longer life than others, what colours are less appealing and therefore might get thrown away more easily, whether there are environmentally friendly colours....
After researching into it a bit further I found that dyeing clothing is the most polluting and energy-intensive process involved in making our clothes. Finishing is when chemicals or treatments are applied to fabric to give it a desired look or feel - such as bleaching, softening or making the garment water resistant or anti-wrinkle. Large amounts of water and chemicals are also used during dyeing, to ensure vivid colours bind to the fabric and don’t fade or wash out.
In order to produce one pair of jeans it takes 7,500 litres of water to reach the finished product. To guarantee the colour staying blue, the material is continually immersed into large tanks of synthetic indigo dye. Once it has reached its desired colour, the trousers are then further processed and washed with more chemicals to either soften them or give them intentional texture. Getting the ‘acid wash’ or bleached look on denim involves additional chemical bathing with acids, enzymes, bleach and formaldehyde.
Ma Jun, an environmentalist from China stated that “Every season we know that the fashion industry needs to highlight new colours. Each time you have a new colour you’re going to use more, new kinds of chemicals and dye stuffs and pigments and catalysts.”
So no matter what colour an item of clothing tends to be, the process of creating them is equally bad for the environment and there’s no specific colour that gets used more or thrown away more. However the dyes that are used for various fabrics, for example azo dyes and synthetic nitrogen based dyes have received additional criticism from environmentalists. This is due to the fact that they are frequently used in clothing manufacturing in order to achieve bold colours such as bright and vivid yellows or reds.
Although I’m not dyeing the fabrics, I started focussing on yellows and reds more in order to highlight this issue within the fashion industry. Printing in fluorescent yellow allowed me to create bold and vigorous colours that stand out. I wanted to use a variation of colours on my prints anyway rather than simply using one colour or shade.
I also took pictures of the fabrics scrunched together because so far I had only taken pictures of my prints flat, laid out on the table, or hung up. But when we see clothes most of the time they are folded, creased, or gathered in large piles in a disorganised manner. I wanted to see whether this would make my prints look any different and if it might create an interesting texture.