Edie Ure’s studio is partially the wilds. A self-proclaimed city girl, this London native is as at home in the high alpine of Colorado as she is on the streets of Paris. Lover of diversity, contrast, and a believer in the poetry of contradictions, Ure is an alchemist of color, coaxing delicate shades of pink from briny avocado seeds, brilliant blues from sugar vats of indigo and rich wooden greys from mushrooms and roots.

After graduating in fashion and textiles from Central St. Martins, Ure worked as a designer in Milan, Paris and eventually ended up in New York where she did textile design for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Gap, Ulla Johnson and Tocca. She also co-designed a children’s line with Ulla Johnson called Albert. Mothers clambered.

When her children were still small, her family left New York and moved to Boulder, Colorado where she now resides with her son, daughter and mini poodle, Levon. She teaches natural dyeing and collaborates with illuminated designers like Ryan Roche, Garza Marfa and Brother Vellies which used hundreds of hand dyed feathers for their line of Lamu sandals.

The zeitgeist of fashion is moving slower, harkening back to high touch, high quality materials and intimacy with the surrounds. Ure is walking behind her house gathering golden rod for a late summer dyeing course, talking about the way the pollens change throughout the season. She stacks the velvets and silks in piles that the students can make dyeing journals to chart the subtle differences in colors.

She works with ash, with mordant, with heat and cold. She delights in the unknown outcomes of different materials, knowing, as we all do instinctively, that the best course we can chart is one of following the arc of nature. Drawing wet fabric out from various pots and vessels, She hangs the fabrics on the line, the sunlight steaming though, lighting them with the afternoon.

Words: Willow King
Photographs: Edie Ure