Photo courtesy of Maibe Maroccolo.
MAIBE MAROCCOLO
Maibe Maroccolo is a textile designer and founder of Mattricaria, an all-natural dyeing service that uses locally grown as well as ethically sourced dyestuffs to create sustainable products and services. Natural dyer and textile designer she uses a range of foraged ingredients, plants and botanicals to dye cloth into a range of rich colours. Based in the capital of Brazil, her work merges together colour and dye plants research and the potential of the Brazilian Cerrado biodiversity. She uses traditional techniques such as ecoprint, natural inks and lake pigments.
She holds a Master of Arts from the world's leading sustainable fashion graduate program 'Fashion & the Environment' at the London College of Fashion. She has taught fashion, sustainability, and natural dyes and lake pigments at her studio in Brasilia and has started online workshops too.
Gathering experiences, she realized that many methods were lost, especially as a result of the emergence of large-scale industries. In 2011, Maibe was working within the fashion industry in Brasilia. She worked there for few years before becoming frustrated with the fashion brands’ approach to environmental issues and labour exploitation. It was only later when she went to London to study Fashion Design and Sustainable Development at the London College of Fashion that she really began to think deeply about the whole process, especially the amount of waste and pollution that the fashion industry creates.
At that point, her interest in natural dyes began, and when she finally returned to Brazil, Maibe was determined to make a positive impact. As a first task, she focused on mapping the plants of the Brazilian cerrado, a savannah-like ecosystem that covers a fifth of Brazils territory, alongside artisan cooperatives in Distrito Federal, Goias e Minas Gerais that use traditional recipes of natural pigments and dyes. A huge variety of natural plants and mineral resources are used in Brazil as raw material for extracting. As a result of Maibe’s experience abroad and her knowledge acquired during her research, Mattricaria was born. One of Maibe’s greatest motivations for creating this project came from simple moments such as walking in her neighbourhood and seeing stains on the pavement from fruits that fall from a jamelao tree, or from cooking and seeing that the colour of the beetroot stained her hands. She remembers how she would allow a few drops of açai to fall on her dress as she became aware of the effects to nature on people. As she gathered all these experiences together, Maibe realised that many methods are at risk of being lost, especially as a result of the emergence of large-scale industries.
Mattricaria developed out this process of reflection. The project was initially meant to be a clothing brand of natural dyed and printed pieces, produced according to the principles of slow fashion. However, Maibe also felt that she needed to tell consumers the whole story. She wanted her customers to be more involved and learn more about how the colours and the products are created. So, she started holding workshops with the goal of empowering end consumers to create there own pieces, reconnect with nature and become responsible for the process.
Maibe says, “Mattricaria is the scientific name of Chamomile. When I chose this name I was looking for something that referred to lightness, calm, harmony. These three elements alone help to form our greatest inspiration.”
Photo courtesy of Maibe Maroccolo.
Maibe Maroccolo. Photo courtesy of Maibe Maroccolo.