This Natural Dyeing Service Will Give Your Sheets and Towels a Second Life
Maria Romero is not one to throw things away. A culture of refurbishing runs in her family. Growing up, Romero’s grandmother, a seamstress, sewed clothing for her by hand: flowy A-line dresses, or suits with matching hair accessories were sewn with recycled fabric. Every piece was maintained with care, rips and tears stitched back together for several lives. “Everything I owned when I was a little, I owned a long time. I remember everything [my grandmother] made, and remember nothing that was purchased,” Romero says.
Romero’s studio, Tintoreria, offers a luxury similar to having a stylish grandmother who happens to be a seamstress. Customers can drop off or mail in their favorite textiles, and Tintoreria will re-dye, giving the items a different look. “We do garments, accessories, sheets and duvet covers. The only rule is that they have to be made out of a natural fiber, as natural color won’t yield on synthetic fibers, and [they] should be white or ivory,” Romero says.
The idea was grown organically in her Brooklyn community, where she found her neighbors shared an interest in sustainability. Local restaurants donate vegetables for Romero to use as dyes (her first dye came from the pit of an avocado, which creates a pink-honey tinge when boiled), and neighbors come to Romero with their goods. Now extending the service nationwide, Romero is also about to launch Tintoreria Closet, a collection of goods sewn in Mexico and dyed by hand with natural ingredients in her New York studio. Cotton underwear, bamboo socks, silk scarves, cotton pillowcases, and cotton market mesh totes come in beautiful tones of gray, yielded from acorns, oranges of madder root, yellows from a red onion, and so on.
“I want to create items of clothing that are timeless, made to stay in your life for a long time, to be passed along,” Romero says. “I wear a lot of white dresses, and one day they become a color.” Next time you’re Kondo-ing your linen closet, consider what might look better in another color: This month’s limited edition shade-of-the-season is a fuchsia that comes from cochineal bugs, which grow in cacti; Romero collected them during a recent visit to Oaxaca—and Tintoreria is now taking online orders and appointments via Instagram.
