Hul le Kes and Museum Arnhem have joined forces. The result is a unisex T-shirt dyed with natural materials (from the Museum Arnhem Garden, among others). The T-shirt was specially made in the context of the exhibition Tenminste Houdbaar Tot and is exclusively available in the Museum Arnhem Shop. The museum and Hul le Kes will organize a special Dyeing Event on Saturday 14 January 2023. Sjaak Hullekes will explain about our dyeing process and visitors will dye their own white T-shirt on the spot with plant based materials. This T-shirt is also for sale in the museum shop and automatically grants access to the event.
In the past decades humankind has been using much of our natural resources and producing tons of materials. In the Netherlands alone, tens of millions of kilos of textile are thrown away every year. The value of the raw materials that were needed to make the textile and the labor that goes with it is massively undervalued. At Hul le Kes circularity is part of our philosophy and we like to work with these existing materials as much as possible, instead of using new resources for our designs. Old bed linens, antique tablecloths, secondhand clothes, vintage woolen blankets and other materials are the start of our design process. For Museum Arnhem we collected white T-shirts that people have thrown away. These were dyed with natural (plant) dyes and if needed repaired in the Hul le Kes Recovery Studio. The shades of brown that you see in the T-shirts were obtained from chestnuts from the garden of Museum Arnhem, yellows from onion skins from Zeeland, blues from tree bark and pinks from the roots of madder. Every T-shirt is unique with its own natural color pallet.
Climate change, nature conservation and environmental pollution are topics that concern more andmore people. How long can humans continue to live on the planet? Tenminste Houdbaar Tot shows the various ways in which artists depict nature from the 17th century to the present. What stories do the landscapes, still lifes, plants and animals tell about the relationships between people and nature through the ages? What stories are they not telling… and why not? The exhibition is on view until January 29, 2023.
Would you like to learn more about natural dyeing and how we think it will help us all towards a new, sustainable fashion system? Get a white T-shirt at the Museum Arnhem Store and get access to the event on January 14th. Click here for more information. Not able to join on January 14th? There will be another Hul le Kes Dyeing Event in February; order your tickets for this event here.
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Photo’s by Veryrare Agency & Jama Media
