Natural Dyes is one of the terms in our jeans and denim glossary. For information about more jeans terms, please visit our Denim Glossary.

Natural Dyes
Up to the middle of the 19th century there were only natural dyes and most of these were of vegetable origin. Natural indigo is one of the more important dyes. Natural dyes usually have no affinity for textile fibers until the fibers are treated with aluminum, iron, or tin compounds to receive the dye. This is a problematic process and the dyes in any case have poor fastness to sun or abrasion.