Natural Dyes, a Family Heritage
It’s in their family home in Beaugency where Mélissa Wago-Lala and Chantal Dubreuil Beaur meet to create together. They search for colours according to the seasons and use old family sheets that they repair, sew and transform. From gathering plants to dyeing fabrics, theirs is a story of the transmission of know-how and life skills.
Photos & intro text by Clémence Louise Biau, interview by Dörte de Jesus
Since childhood, Mélissa Wago-Lala has been particularly interested in textiles and nomadism and has a particular love for colours. Having graduated in Object and Space Design, she is now working as a set designer in the luxury industry. A few months ago, she created LALASTUDIO, a studio where she dyes small and large pieces of fabric inspired by the colours offered by dawn and dusk, plants and seabed, seasons and feelings.
Mélissa was introduced to natural dyeing by her grandmother Chantal Dubreuil Beaur, who graduated in tapestry and decoration from École Boulle (the college of fine arts, crafts and applied arts in Paris). At the end of her studies, Chantal left Paris to work as a decorator in Switzerland. When she came back to France in the early 70s, she realized how difficult it was for a woman to be more than an assistant and build her own business. The two women can compare their similar professions through their own experiences, opportunities and eras that they shared with us in the following story and conversation.
Dörte: What do you love most about creating with natural dyes?
Chantal: I like the unexpected side of natural dyeing. There is something almost magical to it. First, there is a desire to work with this or that plant - a plant that attracts and intrigues us. Then, there is the desire to know what this plant will offer us. It is a technique and approach that makes you humble. We need to apprehend the plant and touch it, to respect it. It is a form of conversation.
Mélissa: Absolutely. I also like this side of wonder and the unexpected. And I enjoy that these colours, these bits of fabric and samples, are entirely the result of the plant world. Cotton, linen or silk are already the results of weaving vegetable fibres, and dyeing these fabrics with plants makes sense.
Dörte: How would you say the practice of dying with plants enriches your textile designs?
Chantal: At the moment, the practice allows me to integrate naturally dyed fabrics into my weaves. For the future, I imagine a collection of weavings that brings together pieces of fabric dyed with the same plants but in different tones – thanks to the use of different dye baths.
I also would like to explore the art of Furoshiki (the Japanese art of textile gift wrapping using precise knotting and folding techniques). I like to offer gifts, and I like the gesture. Japanese culture has always been very attractive to me, and experimenting with natural dyeing makes me want to create pieces of naturally dyed fabrics to wrap gifts.
Mélissa: As a set designer, I have to create many different ephemeral universes. I often look for textiles that are intended to be used a few times only, or even once, for the time of a shoot. My grandmother Chantal and her mother, my great-grandmother Simone, always had many fabric pieces at home (fabric scraps, pieces of sheets to sew on, all kinds of scarves and chiffon). They passed the notion of recovery and transformation on to me – a scarf can become a table runner, a piece of veiling can become a scarf to tie your hair, and a sheet can become a shower curtain. For my work with LALASTUDIO, I stock a lot of fabrics and experiment with them. I have the first range of backgrounds and textile elements intended for photo shoots in mind that are more respectful of our environment.
The softness of the organic and earthy shades that we obtain also inspires my work with the durag brand FICHU that I created with my partner and fiancé, who is the artistic director. I share my research with him. The approach confirms our wish to offer natural materials in humble colour tones to highlight the skin and the face.
Dörte: Do you have favourite plants to work with or favourite colours?
Chantal: In spring, I love Celandine. It is a herbaceous plant, commonly known as a wart plant, found by the side of roads, in ditches, at the edge of woods, in wastelands, and at home in certain places in the garden. Celandine can offer a very solar yellow or a very pale yellow.
In summer, my favourite is elderberry. We have a special relationship with this tree. When Mélissa was a child, I showed her that elderberry juice could be used as ink and that she could draw with it. We have three trees in the garden, and for me, they have a particular elegance. As soon as we see the small white flowers arriving, we know that a few months later, we will see the green seeds, which will turn into a dark plum colour. It is a direct relationship between the visual side of the cluster and the sensual side of the shell. When we work with the plant, we inevitably have purplish hands, and we assume that we will receive purple tones. But with time, light or various additives (organic acids such as citric acid or vinegar to alter the color) we obtain scarlet pinks, sky blues or grey.
Mélissa: I like nettle, also because it is considered unattractive. Nettle doesn’t stand out. It blends into the environment and stings. As a child, I was often scratched by it in the garden and I put vinegar on my skin to soothe the itching. It became my obsession. Later, I learned to tame it, and now I like to see big piles of nettles grown in the garden when I come back here. I find it beautiful and quite graphic. It is a real sensory experience to work with this herb. When it boils in the dye bath, it has a strong smell, and the bath colour looks like muddy soup. It creates soft green tones.
But as Chantal explained, I have a special story with elderberry. It is one of my earliest memories of natural colour. Each time I see the ripe berries, I go back to childhood. I loved crushing the beans in my hands. We will let you know when we start dyeing with elderberry again. You have to see that, it is wonderful.
Chantal: From next summer onwards, we will offer discovery and initiation workshops and will start with elderberry and mallow flowers.
Dörte: What do you value most about the two of you creating together, coming from different generations? What specific knowledge, inspiration and ideas do each of you bring to the collaboration?
Chantal: I was immersed in working with materials already as a child. Nothing was lost, everything was transformed. Then this interest in fabrics developed through my training as a decorator-upholsterer at the Boulle school in Paris and my first job in Switzerland. My school friend and I were in charge of the textile decoration of villas, palaces and castles. This experience amazed me – I had access to the most beautiful textiles in the world, to precious know-how, and an unimaginable range of colour palettes. It was excess, with much refinement and a sharp sense of colour.
Mélissa: As our creative relationship started very early, Chantal made me aware of colours, textures and nature early on. There is something intuitive between us. It is as if we are launching challenges to take up together. And I think we have an unlimited curiosity. What is pleasant about working together is that the other is always up for it. I would say that we are in a research process. We both have this love of textiles, materials and colours. Sometimes we don’t agree, but we try things together – that’s what makes us happy. We could assume that there is a simple transmission of knowledge from grandmother to granddaughter. But in reality, there is an exchange, a discussion, and a sharing of ideas, opinions, desires and questions, above all. It’s as if we are cooking together while remaking the world.
Chantal: And it’s very serious! The life stories we create for ourselves are conducted with great respect for nature. Even if we spend a lot of time laughing, each time we decide to do something, we do it seriously and with determination.
Credits:
A story by Clémence Louise Biau, with Mélissa Wago-Lala and Chantal Dubreuil Beaur.
Clémence left her native Pyrenees to learn photography at the Gobelins school of images in Paris: “Between the ocean and the sun, earth and people, I look at daily life and intimacy. I document what connects us and our space, our habits, and our know-how. I try to understand the meaning of things and create archives for the future.”
Clothing credits:
1. Mélissa is wearing Baserange top + THOMÉ handmade knit dress and pants. 2. Chantal and Mélissa are wearing secondhand outfit.