Western Living Magazine
This Stunning Whistler Home Embraces Nature at Every Turn
Home Tour: Inside a Beachy and Beautiful Eagle Island Getaway
Home Tour: Inside Former NHL Player Dan Hamuis’s Stunning Modern Home in Northern B.C.
Recipe: Tomato Bruschetta alla Pepino’s
Recipe: Make Your Own Cheddar Jalapeno Chicken Sausages This Summer
5 BC Wines Under $25 That Will Win Your Next BBQ
The Perfect Southern Alberta Getaway (If You’re Obsessed With Yellowstone)
Visiting San Juan Island? Consider a Yurt
How to Keep Your Pet Cool in a Heat Wave
‘West Coast North’ is a Love Letter to Western Canadian Architecture and Interiors
Design Obsession: This Roll-Up Drying Rack Is Maybe My Favourite Thing in the Kitchen
10 of the Hottest Homewares for Summer 2022
Announcing the 2022 Designers of the Year Finalists
You’re Invited to the Design Party of the Year!
DotY 2022: Our Judges for the Maker Category Can’t Wait to See What You’ve Got
This designer turns foraged materials into gorgeous natural dyesand beautiful clothing, too.
If there were a made-for-TV movie about a small-town fashion designer, scoring work in Milan would be the story's grand conclusion. But for our Fashion Designer of the Year Irene Rasetti, something about the glamorous world of style in Italy just didnt feel right. After a decade of schooling and working with top designers in Milan (including Gianfranco Ferré and Versace), she decided to start over in her hometownCalgary.
She took natural dye classes at the Alberta University of the Arts, and there found a more honest fit. I started understanding that I could have a more authentic engagement to textile work through natural dyes, says Rasetti. The age-old practice of natural dying felt magical, even witchy, to her. The women she met through her classes didnt care about creating something avant garde or trendy. We would just play around with florals, leaves and all things nature related, she says, and for me, that was super groundingand, in many ways, healing.
Rasetti's fabrics are dyed almost completely from plants she grows in her home garden, and she also carefully forages while on urban and forest walks. For plants that arent native to Alberta (like eucalyptus, for example) she sources expired or imperfect rejects from local florists. It's a really sustainable practice, she says. Judge Nicole Bischofer, head of design for women's wear at COS, praises Rasetti for taking her practical experience and using it to execute an ethical business, and says the designer's focus on sustainability and small batch production is very important. The garments themselves are proof that fabric dying is a thoughtful art: her collections range from crisp, clean prints (like Natural Conclusions, her 2017 line) to the abstract and deliberately messy (her 2019 collection, Kaelen and Garden Blooms, is less controlled).
Flowy silhouettes that move with the body go hand-in-hand with Rasetti's organically pigmented fabrics. Though always done with intention, there'ssomething about the uncertainty of the craftthe beauty in decay and imperfection, how every dye session provides a different outcomethat keeps Rasetti interested in a way high Italian fashion didnt. You just have to trust the process, she says. Nature's going to do what it wants. Roll credits.
