Japanese indigo - 20 generations of indigo pigments
LOADS works with Japanese fabrics dyed with indigo by indigenous artisans, combined with Dutch woad from Friesland. The result: a serene, blue-hued composition with subtle shibori effects, created with the 2025 biodynamic harvest. A vision of international knowledge exchange and collaboration.
LOADS Collection recently travelled the inlands of Japan and met incredible 20th generation families making the Sumuko indigo pigments. For over a thousand years, Japan has cultivated and refined one of the world’s most complex natural dyes: indigo (ai). Extracted from the leaves of the tade-ai plant (Persicaria tinctoria), Japanese indigo is not a simple pigment, but the result of a living process. It’s a slow collaboration between plant, microbe, human and time.
Each shade of indigo reflects its origin and environment: the minerals of the soil, the microorganisms of the fermentation, the temperature of the season, and the human touch of caring for the process. It results in a colourof a specific place and its living systems.
Learning by doing
For centuries, indigo in Japan has represented harmony between human life and nature. It was used not only for textiles, but also for medicine and symbolic cleansing. To this day, working with natural indigo means caring for a fragile ecosystem of bacteria and balance, an act of attention and respect.
LOADS Collection collaborates with Aiya Terroir, a family-run atelier in Tokushima that continues this biodynamic craft. Our biologically grown fabrics were coloured there. They carry the deep, layered blues of this living tradition. It’s a meeting between regenerative design and an ancient, ongoing dialogue with the earth.
Here you can see our Sekem cotton that can be used for LOADS’s new collection of clothing and interior designs. Aiya Terroir taught us about the power of intergenerational transmission of knowledge and the beauty of trusting a craft’s slower process to let things unfold.
