Today, indigo is the most popular colour for denim worn by millions of people worldwide. Every year, tens of thousands of tonnes of indigo\u00a0dye is produced but most of it is synthetic. Its natural version is harder to find as the extraction of colour\u00a0is done by hand in a\u00a0complicated and time-consuming process.\u00a0As a result, natural\u00a0indigo-dyed garments often come with a high price tag. A\u00a0140 x 140 cm Hermes silk scarf for instance \u2013 hand-rolled and dyed with natural indigo pigments \u2013 can cost\u00a0US$1,950.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet, little is known about the origin of this dark blue dye, and even less so about the people who create it.\u00a0In Laos, many of them live a simple life in a remote village of Lahanam, 500 kilometres southeast of the capital Vientiane.\u00a0Here, more than 300 families spin countless cotton threads into beautiful dark blue fabric on a daily basis. All of them are hand-dyed with natural indigo substances harvested from the locals\u2019 own gardens.\u00a0A piece of 100 x 100 cm indigo-dyed cotton here costs less than US$2 \u2013 a world apart from its market value.\u00a0The price may seem unreal for many fashion lovers. It does not for the villagers, who have spent months growing the plant, dying and weaving the cotton.\u00a0In fact, income from natural indigo dye has transformed their lives over the past decade, ridding families of poverty and sending many children to school.\u00a0\u201cThe business is doing so well we can\u2019t produce fast enough,\u201d said 60-year-old Sisavath Meevorachak.\u00a0When they are not farming, both she and her husband make natural indigo dye for sale. Each month, the couple earns about US$1,000 from harvesting leaves of the local indigo plant and extracting the natural dark blue colour out of them.<\/p>\n
Although Sisavath enjoys the extra income, the process of turning fresh indigo leaves into dark blue dye takes a lot of hard work.\u00a0Once the seeds are sown, she has to wait for three months for the plants to grow. Old leaves are then handpicked in the morning when the sun is not so harsh.\u00a0\u201cWe only pick leaves from the branches with pods on them,\u201d said Sisavath\u2019s husband Noy, pointing at several long brown pods hanging from one of the indigo plants in his garden across the Banghiang River. Each of them is full of tiny black seeds.\u00a0\u201cIf we pick young leaves, you won\u2019t get the beautiful shade of blue,\u201d his wife added.\u00a0Back at their house, the leaves are soaked in water for 24 hours. When the water turns green the next day, they are removed and a scrap of cloth is used to filter out impurities. More filtering is done to produce thick green paste.\u00a0What happens next is a fascinating work\u00a0of science in the form of local wisdom that has been passed on for generations.\u00a0The thick paste is carefully mixed with a precise amount of quicklime, rice wine, crushed citrus leaves and ash water from burnt coconut trees. The fermentation takes a few days to produce the end product \u2013 natural deep blue dye.\u00a0\u201cWe get US$3 per kilogramme for our indigo dye,\u201d Noy said.<\/p>\n
Like other villagers, Noy and Sisavath sell their natural indigo dye to local traders who then export it overseas.\u00a0\u201cMany foreign countries are interested in our products. It\u2019s our special skill because it\u2019s what we\u2019ve been doing for generations. It\u2019s also 100 per cent natural,\u201d said village chief Somephone Photisane.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re so proud and happy to see Lao products making our name known overseas.\u201d\u00a0However, the growing success of Lahanam in producing and exporting high-quality indigo dye was not made possible by the local wisdom alone but also efforts from various parties to help rural communities in Savannakhet market their products.\u00a0In 2008, the Lao government launched a programme called One District One Product (ODOP) with help from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Focusing on Savannakhet and Saravanh provinces, ODOP is aimed at improving local livelihoods through the promotion of marketable products for export.\u00a0\u201cIt has helped reducing poverty, improving the lives of the people in the village and creating jobs,\u201d Somephone said.\u00a0“We now have good roads, big houses, cars and electricity. Life is much more comfortable.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a paddy field near his village, a few farmers are hard at work. All of them wear dark blue cotton shirts dyed with natural indigo from Lahanam. The material – durable and absorbent\u00a0– is commonly used by rice farmers to protect their skin from the sun.\u00a0But away in boutique shops overseas, the same material has been turned into various fashionable garments. Different fashion cut from the same cloth.<\/p>\n