Pali People: Sasha Duerr

Pali People: Sasha Duerr

Saltwater, aloe, hibiscus - just a few ingredients in her plant based color palettes that remind artisan plant dyer, Sasha Duerr, of home. That home also just happens to be on the very same Pali on the Big Island of Hawaii that inspired co-founder, and Sasha's sister, Martha Duerr to launch Pali Swim.

 

 
 

Deeply inspired by Swiss Family Robinson, driftwood, and jobs that fall halfway between fashionistas and national park rangers, the two sisters always knew they were destined to collaborate professionally. For the launching SS16 season, Pali Swim worked with Sasha to create a line of naturally dyed accessories inspired by Martha and Sasha's Hawaiian hometown and the Bay Area landscape where they both landed. Through the process they not only created beautiful products, they may have found the key to career happiness and longevity: Aloha Fridays, kava wine, and owning more swimsuits than socks.

 

The natural colors from Pali Swim's S/S 16 artisan natural dye collaboration includes palettes made from foggy plant based grays and dyed with saltwater, board bags in organic homemade indigo blues, towels colored perfectly pink with Sasha's Oakland grown madder root, and large straw brimmed hats edged in shades of aloe leaves, avocado pits, and hibiscus flowers. These custom made Pali palettes bring living color into living the dream.

To take a further dip into natural dyeing and get inspired by Hawaiian and Californian coastal colors - Sasha's new book "Natural Color" is due summer 2016 (Watson-Guptill/Random House). We're excited to welcome it to the family.

Sasha’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Selvedge, The Huffington Post and Whole Living. Sasha is a faculty member in Textiles at the California College of the Arts, She holds a BA from Middlebury College and her MFA from California College of the Arts. She is the author of The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes (Timber Press/Workman. January,  2011). 

 

 

 

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