Indigo

Gloriously pieced together, much like the fine garments it portrays, this colorful book takes the reader on an international tour of indigo-colored textiles, presenting a huge swathe of remarkable clothing, people, and fabric. Catherine Legrand has spent more than twenty years traveling and researching the subject, and she has a deep knowledge of the ancient techniques, patterns, and clothing traditions that characterize ethnic textile design.

The book explores the production of indigo textiles throughout America, China, India, Africa, Central Asia, Japan, Laos, and Vietnam. It features more than 500 color photographs and is completed by specially commissioned drawings that provide close-ups of patterns and cloths.

The ultimate reference on indigo dyeing techniques across the world, and a compendium of the most beautiful samples of indigo textiles

Catherine Legrand is the proprietor of an ethnic cloth boutique in Paris's Marais district.

[Legrand] uses her book to tell the story of our emotional attachment to garments and deep connection to color and craft.
A visual feast of 550 images offers textile details, proud locals wearing their garments, and process shots illustrating how the dyeing is done.
Diverse images of people at work convey the enormous range of conditions in which indigo dyeing takes place.
Legrand . . . writes with enthusiasm about the history of this shade and its evolution.
This sumptuous book can be appreciated on all levels: a history of the production and trade of dyes and textiles; an anthropology of textile production; and a stunning visual catalog of the international production of cloth colored with the blue dye, indigotin.
A sumptuous new book.