About the Process

Zena Hamon and Michelle Larsen of Fortiv have come together to create a collection of garments inspired by their shared love for wildflowers and finding small moments of wonder and peace in each day.

The roots of their collaboration began at Picnics Studio in Vancouver, as they bonded over their values of slow living and shared excitement over natural dyes.

With Zena’s background in textile design, and Michelle’s background in clothing design and natural dyeing, they were inspired to bring their skills together and collaborate.

Mixing pigments of Logwood, Brazilwood, and Marigold, Michelle and Zena embraced a slow and laborious process, working at nature’s pace.

After preparing and soaking the fabric by ‘mordanting’ it with Alum, the natural dyes were simmered into an extract and combined with a thickening gum to create paints.

From there, Michelle and Zena were able to experiment with creating colours, mixing and diluting dyes to create the palette they had in mind.

It mysteriously takes a few moments to appear on the fabric after painting, and so it became a very magical and mindful process waiting for colours to emerge and accepting the variation from one paint stroke to the next.

Once the fabrics were painted by Zena, they were steamed for one hour, washed, ironed, and ready to be cut and sewn by Michelle.

We are so excited to share the final pieces with you and each one is ready to buy from fortiv.ca.