Garment dyeing
Our Craft
Colour is where a Ploumanac'h piece begins, and it is added last, once the garment is finished.
The method
Dyed after it is made
Most clothing is cut from cloth that was dyed as yarn or as fabric. Our pieces are sewn or knitted first, in their natural undyed state, and coloured afterwards. The dyeing is carried out by our partner dye houses, specialists in garment dyeing, piece by piece.
Because the colour meets a finished garment, it settles differently on a seam, a cuff, a collar, a shoulder. Stitching and tighter areas stay lighter; open areas take the colour deeper. The construction of the piece becomes part of its colour.
One of a kind
Why each piece is unique
No two garments take the colour in exactly the same way. Tones vary slightly from piece to piece, and from the photographs on this site. That variation is the technique, not a flaw.
It is also why a garment-dyed piece softens and settles with wear, and becomes more your own over time.
The techniques
Eleven ways of colouring a finished garment
Each is applied by hand at the dye house, and each leaves its own trace.
Rainbow
Our signature. The finished garment passes through a sequence of light pigment baths and takes the colour slowly and unevenly. Seams, edges and stitching stay lighter, the cloth keeps its natural texture, and the tone settles into a washed, lived-in shade, as if the piece had already known salt and sun.
Soffio
Soffio means breath. The colour is nebulised onto the knit as a fine mist and settles on the surface in thin layers, moving from light to deep without hard lines. The knit stays light and breathable, and the hand of cotton, merino and cashmere is left as it was.
Marble Art
Two tones in two steps. The garment is dyed in a deep base colour, then a lighter shade is brushed across the surface by hand. Light and dark meet in a veined, marbled finish that brings out the texture of the knit.
Love Art
Colour worked into the knit, then the word LOVE written across it by hand, in loose, overlapping strokes. The lettering falls a little differently on every piece.
Jewel Art
A solid base dye first, then fine pigments sprayed over the surface in several tones. The colour sits on the upper layer of the knit and catches the light in facets, like a cut stone.
Spray Art
Colour sprayed by hand onto the finished garment, in directional passes. Some areas take it fully, others let the base tone show through. Tonal depth without coating the fibre: the knit stays soft and breathable.
Frost Art
Sprayed from the inside out. The outer face reads soft and frosted, as if bleached by the sea, while the deeper tone shows at the seams, edges and folds. Two shades of one colour in a single garment.
Smoke Art
A spray technique for knitwear. A darker dust of colour is sprayed over the body of the finished piece while the edges are left untouched, so the ribs, cuffs and hem stay lighter and the knit looks softly smoked.
Riviera Art
Broad washes of colour that fade softly into one another across the garment, deeper in one area and lighter in the next, like a stretch of coast in late-afternoon light.
From Spring Summer 2027
Acquerello Art
Acquerello is Italian for watercolour. Pale washes of colour with soft, bleeding edges, layered and pooled across the knit as on wet paper.
From Spring Summer 2027
Sparks
Fine metallic flecks applied over the dyed knit, denser in some places than others. They catch the light as you move, while the colour beneath stays as it is.
From Spring Summer 2027
Care
Living with garment-dyed colour
Over time the colour may soften a little. That is the nature of garment dyeing, and part of how the piece becomes yours. A few simple habits keep colour and shape: they are all in the care guide.