In the world of the urban farmer that emerged from Seam founder Tajah Ellis

Seemingly, sustainable development has grow to be a farce. From colourful marketing designed to make products appear more eco-friendly than they really are, to many unsubstantiated claims, “eco-dark wash”, also often called “green shine”, is at an all-time high. But if we get past the strategic promoting and delve deeper into the ins and outs of conscious fashion, there are plenty of creators, like urban farmer-turned-designer-director Tajah Ellis, who’re making huge strides by leveraging the resources present in their backyard.

As founder From the seam, a Brooklyn-based entity that uses natural dyes, Ellis maintains that it will not be a sustainable brand, but quite a mixture of design elements that are made entirely from things that exist already. “I run a remanufacturing practice, so all the material I take advantage of comes from firms I even have a consistent relationship with or have utilized in previous [fabrics],” she says. “I extend that to my partnerships and collaborations as well. I still work with the same people I began with. For me, that’s what maintaining something is.

Most of the plants and flowers the designer uses come from florists, gardeners and botanists in her network. Ellis spent years volunteering at a community plot with access to fresh plants and wild weeds, which led her to explore all the ways she could use them in her day by day life. After further research and plenty of trials and errors, the creator discovered that natural colours may very well be extracted and transferred to raw materials as a less predictable alternative to harmful solutions. “The textile industry has been using synthetic dyes for a hundred years. Awareness of toxic practices [is] are updated, so finding alternatives to achieve color is one of the countless reasons why natural dyes are beneficial. So much [the process] is spontaneous, learning about a specific plant or herb can have huge benefits for your well-being,” she says. “It gave me a lot of wisdom as a designer and director.”

Despite the absence of harmful synthetic dyes, Ellis’s methods are just like those used in additional traditional processing, similar to rubber banding, while others, similar to changing the pH of forage plants, are a real testament to her experience with biomimicry and biodesign. he calls each of these works the basis of his work for Out Of Seam.