BOLD: Color from Test Tube to Textile – FESCH.TV

BOLD: Color from Test Tube to Textile & FESCH.TV:

Dyeing is both art and science. For thousands of years, we’ve colored our clothes, our bodies, and our environments. Dyeing can be an expression of culture, belief, and tradition. A marker of selfhood, feelings, and desires. It can set our style apart or bring us together as one.

Before the 1800s, most dyes were organic; they came from plants, insects, or minerals harvested from nature. But then came synthetics—dyes made in the laboratory. For the first time, we could create colors rather than imitate them.

Drawing on dye sample books, vivid clothing, and scientific instruments, BOLD: Color from Test Tube to Textile explores more than 150 years of efforts to expand our access to color. This exhibition takes visitors on a colorful journey through the history of science, with stops at coal mines, factory floors, and fashion runways.

But color comes at a cost. The pursuit of new and brighter dyes has at times harmed humans and environments. BOLD examines scientists’ efforts to understand these impacts and the efforts of dye makers to produce color more sustainably . . . for people and for places.

museum,color,dyes,fashion