Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear: From Seed to Style the Sustainable Way

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From sowing to sewing, Bella guides you with engaging stories, easy-to-follow instructions, step-by-step illustrations, and full-scale pattern sheets, as well as: Who’s the author? Bella Gonshorovitz is a prize-winning fashion designer and dressmaker who has worked with Alexander Wang and Gucci. A long-time vegan, Bella is passionate about growing her own food and reducing waste. Her cooking is influenced by the principles of sustainability as well as by the flavours of her Tel Aviv childhood. It’s a process that designer and author of Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear Bella Gonshorovitz – who has contributed dyeing recipes for the textiles garden – has fallen in love with over the years. “I started making this connection between the things that I grew in my allotment to the things that I cook and to the dyeing process,” she explains. “The whole process of growing, cooking, of dyeing with the leftovers [means] you have a truly slow fashion garment that’s imbued with meaning.” During the pandemic, I was making protective gowns for doctors in hospitals since the UK had a shortage. Then the title came to my head – Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear. I made the onion dyed dress from upcycled fabrics for myself, showed it to my agent – who helped me put together a proposal. It took three months for me to get the book down. It became a vehicle for me to share this ideology and everything played out organically.

The idea is to embody circular economy as something approachable – where you can capture its essence in the title of the book itself. Every stage has tangible results that are in the reader’s hands. Since this circularity is on a small scale – starting in your own garden, in your kitchen with your own sewing machine, I call it miniature. However, it is challenging to live that way or even do the whole process of the book in just one season. Always wash and rinse everything thoroughly with neutral soap to allow the dye to attach easily," advises Dye. "New fabrics are often treated with chemicals to protect against damage; even used fabrics can have traces of conditioner or dry cleaning chemicals which resist dyes. Dyeing is like decorating," she adds. "Preparing the surface to start with is tedious but well worth it for beautiful and long-lasting results." For dyestuffs, begin at home – with food waste. "Avocado skins and stones for pinks; used tea bags and coffee grinds for yellows; squash pumpkin skins for orange," says Behan. The challenge – and the joy – of plant dyeing is to learn it well. "There is a lot of diversity among contemporary natural dyers, but what unites us is a love of colour and a taste for alchemy," reflects Susan Dye. "Using a pile of unremarkable dried weld leaves to create a hank of electric-yellow yarn never ceases to give me a thrill. Dyeing requires a satisfying attention to both science and art. Whether consciously or not, successful natural dyers are masters of chemistry and biology. We learn how to extract dye molecules from plants and bind them to fibres. And in all kinds of processes, it's important to control temperature, alkalinity, acidity." Bella: [The book] is for anyone who enjoys doing things with their hands. The book doesn't ask you for expensive ingredients or special knowledge. It's about doing quite a lot with very little, with a real emphasis on upcycling and working with what’s already there, whether that’s an old sheet or tablecloth. Live sustainably with style – grow fruits and vegetables, cook them, create natural dyes, then make your own clothes with five full-size pattern sheets.We have to reconsider our relationship with clothes. Through fast fashion we are bombarded with clothes and they have become disposable. The common phenomena now is that people wear things once and then throw it away, particularly in the UK. I find that baffling. If you went through the journey of making the garment, you would never throw it – you would mend it, pass it along to family and friends, it becomes a part of you and you become a part of it.

Discover the endless benefits of swapping food waste and fast fashion for homegrown produce, delicious vegan dishes alongside a contemporary yet environmentally-friendly wardrobe with the help of fashion designer, dressmaker and author Bella Gonshorovitz. BG: I have an MA in applied psychology in fashion and spent a long time researching the idea of identity in clothing. The idea that clothes are imbued with memories is supported by scientific research. We come to embody the clothes and they influence the way we think, feel and function. There’s a link between this phenomenon and the desire to buy new clothes – they carry a promise of who we may become while wearing them. In that context, this book attempts something radical – clothes emerging from the processes of this book say more about the past rather than the fantasy of the future. When you hand-make something, from the book, it’s about the experience of creating the garment – think about the onions that grew from seeds, a process which took months. Then the cooking and waste collection that led to the dyeing of the fabric. This finally culminated in a garment. Swap food waste and fast fashion for homegrown produce, delicious vegan dishes, and a contemporary capsule wardrobe with the help of fashion designer, dressmaker, and writer Bella Gonshorovitz.A strong part of why I wanted to design in the first place, why I wanted to make clothes, was [to look at] how clothes become memory. I wear things for decades. Even if they don't fit anymore, I find a way to adjust them. I can't let go of things and if something gets lost, I’m devastated. When fast fashion became so big, I was just staggered that people could buy something and then just throw it away. Clothes are imbued with what you had with the garment.

BG: What is to stress is that it’s not an activity that you need to be engaged in the whole day. There is a process of preparing a fabric. If it’s a new fabric from the store, what I call a virgin textile in my book – it needs to be rewashed first. Though working with upcycled fabric is efficient, because natural dyes work great in obscuring stains.Live sustainably with style - grow fruits and vegetables, cook them, create natural dyes, then make your own clothes with five full-size pattern sheets. Create heirlooms from scraps with Modern Quilting: A Contemporary Guide to Quilting by Hand, by Julius Arthur of House of Quinn. A brilliant guide to making chic, minimal quilts, ideal for first-time crafters. Other household textiles like cotton or linen sheets can be upcycled. In Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear: From seed to style the sustainable way, Bella Gonshorovitz shows how to grow and cook five fruits and veg, then create natural fabric dye – even the dressmaking patterns are included.