We talk Regenerative fashion and natural dyes with Ria Burns
Image of Ria Burns with their new book Dyeing Yarn Naturally. Credit Ria Burns
By Harriet Fletcher-Gilhuys
Ria Burns, founder of the eponymously named Ria Burns Knitwear is a natural dye advocate, local wool and regenerative fashion educator based in Bristol. Ria is an antidote to fast-fashion, and follows the Fibreshed approach, creating soil-to-soil textiles, with a fully circular cradle-to-cradle life cycle assessment. They provide educational services which range from workshops, books and a range of inspirational research projects.
Ria’s brand is the definition of “Regenerative fashion” traceability, and is a fantastic example of a knitwear brand working in harmony with both people and planet. Every aspect of the design and manufacturing process is accounted for and produced in the most efficient and responsible way, with the lowest environmental impact. All of the colours are naturally dyed and grown and harvested by Ria in their dye garden, and uses wool from one single flock, the Romney x Shetland from Fernhill Farm in Somerset. Even after the design process which consists of detailed fully-fashioning calculations for each piece (knitting garments to shape similar to zero-waste techniques for woven garments), even the waste yarn ends from production are used on the labels and swing tags.
I was fortunate enough to work with Ria during my placement year at Nottingham Trent University in 2021, which covered working with their natural dye garden in Bristol, learning fully-fashioned knitting techniques and visiting Fernhill Farm in the Mendips (a holistic fibre farm with regenerative certified wool and animal welfare approved A Greener World (AGW) for both cattle and sheep) to see where the wool comes from first hand and how the design process works from start to finish.
After Fashion Roundtable’s launch of The Great British Wool Revival which is an open access tool that connects farmers with designers and makers across the British Isles to promote the fantastic properties and qualities of British wool and best-case practise, which includes natural dye usage and accessibility, Ria is a fantastic candidate to speak to for our audience.
Natural dye methods in production are currently less accessible and can create challenges when it comes to production, lead times and colourfastness. This is an area that is often overlooked when it comes to sustainable design methods and life-cycle assessments, with synthetic dye methods often the preferred choice as a result of convenience and accessibility. This is also due to a lack of education in the fashion industry and a systems gap in educational teaching methods.
We cover natural dyes in practice and what this looks like day-to-day, Ria’s close relationship with Fernhill Farm and how that helps to push storytelling and narrative creating a closer relationship between fibre and the consumer. We also talk about general myths and complaints around natural dye techniques and finally cover their exciting projects including the book launch of Dyeing Yarn Naturally and workshops at Highgrove.
Q1. Firstly, I read a little about the launch of Ria Burns Knitwear and the brand’s commitment to only using natural dyes as a way of colouring garments, something that is extremely admirable and rarely seen by most fashion brands.
Can you explain a little bit more about why you only use natural dyes in your knitwear and what this looks like in practice, what are your potential challenges around this area?
When I started out in 2018, I made the decision to only work with things that I have grown myself or things that are forageable. That was an immediate challenge as that’s the start of my supply chain, growing things from seed to cultivation.
I chose to work with natural dyes because I was only working with local wool from Somerset at the time, so working with plant dyes felt like the right decision for me in terms of putting colour on garments. Natural dyes take so well to wool, it has been 7 years now and I continue to do everything in-house, from growing the plants, sourcing the wool and making the knitwear. I do this very much on my own and sometimes with students like yourself!
Q2. I know from working with you and reading about the products on your website, that you have a brilliant relationship with Jen and Andy from Fernhill Farm in Somerset. Could you tell us a little bit more about this and how that works, do you find that your customer base are particularly interested in this as a narrative?
I think that the narrative and storytelling aspect are really important, whenever I do workshops I always do a supply chain map where you can see the process. The furthest thing away is the mill - I think people really appreciate seeing that. I find that the high animal welfare practices and environmental commitments from Fernhill Farm are well received and something that people like to hear about. I feel that I got really lucky when I met Jen at Fernhill - it was the closest sheep farm to me that sold wool and worked in a similar way to me.
Q3. A lot of the questions that we get from the launch of The Great British Wool Revival is that natural dyes are not as accessible and less colourfast than synthetic dyes, with scalability being an issue. What are your views on this?
That’s really tough. I feel like even since I have been working with natural dyes and the launch of my brand, the amount of designers working with natural dyes and interest around this area has increased massively.
The main issue is the scalability of it, there is a sourcing issue when it comes to dyeing at scale and then you have to convince commercial dye houses to work with natural dyes. Something I have noticed is that manufacturers are hesitant to work with these dyes, they don’t necessarily have the skill set and feel hesitant to use their machines in-case their equipment gets damaged.
This is partly why I keep everything in-house. In terms of the attitudes towards colourfastness…
“I have dyed stuff with synthetic dyes in the past and they fade too, this is perhaps a stigma, a misnomer that isn't there. Starting from the plant and understanding the colour, choosing the best dye for the end result is the best way to approach it” - Ria
Q4. This is exactly the same narrative as British wool, there is such a stigma around British wool being too scratchy and only suitable for carpets, it’s interesting to hear you speak about the importance of re-training the narrative and the support that education can offer in this space.
What is your time scale for production? How long does it take you from harvesting your plants to dyeing and finishing?
Well to cover this properly, I have to take it right back to the start of the seed. I am going right back to the seasonal cycle so I would say about 6 months in total. I would say it’s about a week from harvesting the plant tops to finishing. I have to plan in advance and the design process in a slightly different way - that can be something that is tricky to get your head around in the beginning.
“You really inspired me when I worked with you, I made it my mission to only use natural dyes in my final collection, I think this was partly because I saw you doing it in practise, which just shows the power of education and workshops, when you teach the right skills you get results” - Harriet
Q5. I wanted to cover some of the amazing things that you have achieved alongside running your brand. I know these include the launch of your book, workshops at Highgrove and Shetland wool week. Could you talk me through this?
Yeah the book came out about 2 years ago now, although it feels like not that long ago and it’s had really good feedback. It was designed to be an accessible book so the language isn’t too complicated. It’s structured so that it’s like shadowing me for a day and doing a workshop. The teaching work I do at Highgrove is great, it consists of public workshops and we even had the German Fashion Council last year and I was doing dyeing workshops with the students.
Q6. What's your plan moving forward then?
This year I have just moved house, I live in North Somerset now so even closer to Fernhill Farm, my main plan is getting the studio set up and building a brand new dye garden completely from scratch. It will make a change to the tiny square garden that I used to have. This will mean that I can produce a wider range of colours and in a larger quantity than before, I find I am getting more requests for collaborations and commissions from other designers or artists and dyeing yarn for woven textiles.
They come to me because they want to use the dyes that I have grown, they love the traceability aspect and the fact that they can come and see all of the plants and everything as it’s happening.
Q7. Any advice that you would give our readers who are interested in working with natural dyes, how would you suggest they go about it?
I always encourage people to give it a go, but to also do a little bit of research before they start. Local libraries are great because they have lots of resources including a variety of natural dye books. I would also suggest that people observe the season too, this time of year is great for foraging - Nettle and Dock Leaves are a great option and provide beautiful colours such as soft green and mustard yellows. There are a lot of options out there, it just requires a little bit of research and planning beforehand.
To hear more about Ria’s exciting work check out The Great British Wool Revival to read their case study example.