Giving indigo a second life

Infinity Blue is a circular colour-sharing system that recovers synthetic indigo from discarded denim, transforming waste into a sustainable resource. It reflects the kind of closed-loop thinking found throughout natural systems, where nothing is discarded, and everything contributes to something else.

Developed by Emily Gubbay, winner of the Graduate Award 2025 at UAL, the project emerged from the Swarovski Foundation x MA Material Futures mentorship programme at Central Saint Martins. This initiative pairs alumni with current students to support their final projects and encourages innovation at the intersection of materiality and sustainability.

The scale of denim waste is significant. Two million tonnes are discarded each year globally, containing enough indigo pigment to dye the entire industry’s production for the next five years. Yet we continue to manufacture fifty thousand tonnes of virgin synthetic indigo annually, reinforcing a linear system that extracts, produces and discards.

What makes Infinity Blue compelling is its elegant simplicity. Using a natural extraction process free from the harsh chemicals that typically characterise textile production, it releases indigo from waste denim and gives this ancient colour a new life. The process echoes the regenerative cycles of coastal ecosystems, where materials continually transform and circulate rather than accumulate as waste.

In collaboration with Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, London’s only selvedge denim maker, the project has produced screen-printed jeans using indigo extracted from just fifty grams of their factory off-cuts. It offers a tangible demonstration of what becomes possible when we shift our perspective from disposal to recovery, from linear to circular.

At Dulcie, this approach to colour resonates with our own practice. Our Christmas gift sets featuring 100% cotton wash bags that have been naturally dyed as a commitment to pigments derived from botanical sources instead of synthetic alternatives. Sharing Infinity Blue feels like a natural extension of this philosophy. Whether colour comes from plants or is recovered from waste, the principle remains the same. We are moving towards a future in which colour is treated as a precious, renewable resource rather than a disposable commodity.

At its core, Infinity Blue invites us to reconsider our relationship with colour itself. What if pigments were not single-use? What if the blue in worn-out jeans could become the blue in the next pair? By recovering pigment with the potential to replace annual virgin dye production, the project challenges us to recognise value in what we discard and to imagine a future where colour is shared, recovered and endlessly reusable, much like the nutrients that flow through natural systems and sustain life indefinitely.

References: Emily Gubbay