FAQ

Zhinh works with plant dyes and also works with synthetic dyes that are avo free. But even with plant dying, I still use heavy metals in the process of dyeing and mordanting. In order to achieve most of the landscapes, part of the process is dyeing a piece in many separate dye baths and washing it between stages sometimes to achieve the surreal landscapes that I make possible on fabric. But this is also a very very small scale in which im creating these works of art.

These garments are made possible by the use bleach and an ingredient that removes dye to achieve the handprinted details and the stenciling of landscapes and those 2 are obviously not natural.

I always make conscious efforts to reduce excess water usage by saving old dye baths and just adding to them instead of just dumping all of the bath away, also making sure I have a nice handful of clothes to wash so I can wash in one load instead of many separate loads. Whether it's plant dyes or non plant dyes, I usually keep the pots of the dye in the pots and just keep adding to them. I dye as many fabric scraps as I can to use as packing ribbon or as clothing tag fabric because all clothing tags are hand screen printed in studio. When I use dyes that aren't plants, I soak fabric scraps in the dye baths to soak up the excess color in dye baths to reduce dye water that goes into drain. When it comes to plant dyes, I try to keep the buckets of alum mordant water for as long as I can and just add to it, without dumping away as many times and also with the iron water, I try to keep using the same bucket of iron water when dipping my cloths, but when cleaning the metals out, it still runs off into water. But at the small scale in what im producing, it has a very little impact.

I only purchase plant fiber fabrics and organic. The fabrics that make the classic basket styled dresses and tops do have a small percentage of 4% spandex in the mix, to give it a nice comfortable stretch. Sometimes I will have items that are thrifted/secondhand clothes that I like to flip(dye and design.) When I find other clothing to flip/collaborate with, I always choose organic brands.

When cutting my patterns out, I carefully map out each piece so that I use as much of the fabric that I can to reduce fabric scraps. Many fabric scraps are then used as clothing tags and packing ribbon.

Sometimes I receive very small production help from a local non profit small business that prides in sustainable and ethical practices.

The mailers I use are from the amazing brand called "Impack" where they offer bio degradable packaging that bio degrade faster then other ones.

I use all organic fabrics and or dead stock fabrics which are fabrics that were not used from other designers collections.