New Entrepreneur Profile: Elissa Meyers and Mira Adornetto of Blue Red Yellow

Elissa Meyers and Mira Adornetto, of BLUEREDYELLOW, take the concept of “earth tones” to the next level. Elissa says, “Our goal with the business is to create a piece of clothing from the ground up, watching the process completely, and that includes the colors of the clothing.”

Their website explains the purpose of the company. “BLUEREDYELLOW is a design and natural dye house to satisfy your need for comfortable, natural chemical free textiles. We get our organic cotton fabric from the Fessler USA mill in Deer Lake PA, and grow and harvest our dyes in Philadelphia PA. At this stage we collected our yellow (marigolds) locally on our South Philly plot along with our blue (indigo). We will be planting our own red (madder) in our new home at the Schuykilll Center Community Garden. While we tend and harvest our grown crops we ordered natural madder root from Monterey Bay Spice Company and our indigo from the direct importer Indigocrow to get us started. To mordant (set) our dyes we use only aluminum sulfate, or alum, which is traditionally used in pickling. Besides our textiles, we sell exhausted dye material in our Apothecary necklaces.”

Elissa studied Industrial Design at UArts, and learned about natural fibers and natural textile processes. “I got into researching how clothing is made and became interested in natural dyes.” She teamed up with Mira, also a UArts graduate, and the two decided to start one of the only businesses in the U.S. that creates dyes from plants and uses their own indigo dye for their clothing. Mira explains why this is important, saying, “People sometimes don’t understand that when you buy an organic T-shirt, it’s not necessarily dyed with organic dyes. Many companies incorporate heavy metals and use a lot of water in the process. Low-impact dyeing may use a lot less water, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less toxic or harmful to the environment with its use of heavy metals. With BLUEREDYELLOW, we take things to another level by offering an alternative dye service that small design lines can use.”

The natural process used by Elissa and Mira allows them to create dyes without harming the environment at all. “A lot of people use dyes that have chrome and tin and heavy metals. With natural dyes, you can dip a piece of fabric into an indigo vat to dye it, and it doesn’t require any heating or metals. And, indigo can last hundreds of years,” says Mira. To get a variety of dye colors and shades, Elissa and Mira use different plants and overdyeing or layering.

For now, Elissa and Mira work other jobs while they try to figure out if BLUEREDYELLOW could become a fulltime gig. “We’ve been producing for less than a year, and we have designed a scarf and some shirts and have been doing custom dye work for miscellaneous customers,” says Mira. Elissa adds, “We’re in the testing phase right now with our clients. We’re trying to figure out if we can bring in enough to have things balance out.”

They’ve spent their test phase going through the steps to become a business and have attracted some influential admirers. Elissa says, “We’ve been courted by an incubator, a nonprofit for the city, called Green Village, and they look for startups like us to assist them in getting off the ground. They want to help us see if we have a viable business model.”

BLUEREDYELLOW also got great exposure because of a chance encounter with the editor of Grid Magazine. Mira says, “We grew in an empty lot in South Philly next to a community garden and used its water, and Grid’s editor also gardened there. When I explained to everyone there why we were stealing their water and what we were doing, she learned about the project and loved it.” The exposure in Grid lead them to several clients that have helped BLUEREDYELLOW move forward.

As they continue to grow as a business, Elissa and Mira are keeping things small and simple. Mira says with a laugh, “We currently grow our plants at the Schullkill Center Community Garden, and we have a vat of indigo in my basement, a printing table in Elissa’s apartment, and we meet at coffee shops and wherever we can.” It is obvious from hearing them discuss their business that Elissa and Mira are very excited about the future of BLUEREDYELLOW.