Bringing colour to local fashion

After disappearing from Barbados centuries ago, the indigo plant, whose leaves yield a violet-blue dye, is being reintroduced to Barbados.An attempt is being made by the recently launched Barbados Fashion Alliance to grow the plant for the local fashion industry.The organisation has leased about four acres of land from the Barbados Future Centre Trust in St Thomas for the pilot project and will employ two farmers in the initial stages.According to Pat Blackman of the Barbados Fashion Alliance, funding has been secured through the United Nations Development Project GS Small Grants Programme for a pilot project for indigo and other sustainable natural dyes including that extracted from the miamosi plant.“In recent times, countless people have experienced allergic reaction to synthetic dyes used in fabrics,” Blackman pointed out. She said there were plans to expand “down the road” with the hope that production would reach a stage where dyes could be exported to other islands in the region.Blackman told the Daily Nation that for too long fashion in Barbados had been regarded as entertainment. But she argued that the international scene was a multibillion-dollar industry Barbados must tap into, since the livelihood of many people here depended on the local fashion industry. (GC)