Aurélia Wolff is a fashion designer with a true passion for colour. Alongside her "Rosa Tapioca" ready-to-wear brand, she's now creating WHOLE, an interior design concept selling household linen products made from natural organic materials using a environmentally friendly dying process, all produced in France.

Aurélia with carrot tops
I've been following Aurélia Wolff 's work since she organized an online crowd funding project called the « colour –extractor ». I was captivated by her adventurous machine that would allow her to transform organic waste material into fabric pigment dyes.

Dying by hand
The crowd funding was a huge success and she managed to create an open-source organic dye tank machine devised by a textile engineer with the support of a "Fab-lab" (an open and participatory development structure). Since then, she has been experimenting with dyes using roots, various vegetable peels and other organic materials she collects, often from organic matter disposed by restaurants and cafés. She is building her concept with the perspective of fighting against waste.
So which colours can such a varied compost offer? After extensive research and training with botanists, chemists and artisans, Aurélia has managed to create a very delicate range of colours, often from the most unexpected sources. Can you believe that pinks (see top image) are extracted from avocado skins collected from a Mexican restaurant? Thank you guacamole! Aurélia also makes yellow pigments from green carrot tops, and coffee ground (collected from a fairtrade Parisian coffee roaster) is giving her warm tones to her fabrics.
Various colours obtained from carrot tops (yellow), avocado skins (pink), and logwood (purple)
I personally love the concept of a textile cottage industry. It seems that Aurélia started in her kitchen and succeeded to transform her small laboratory into a proper human-scaled business. Her dye machine offers her the possibility to dye limited edition product series. She also reduces water wastage and limits the quantity of her pigments, choosing to use her dying bath as much as she can and only with eco friendly mordents. The result is a wide range of yellow, pink, grey and brown fabrics with tones ranging from the most luminous to pale, while maintaining a great vibrancy at the same time. An absolute delight for the eyes!

Cushions from the WHOLE collection
