How Laila Textiles fulfills our values

  • Raw materials

    Laila Textiles hunts for vintage silk pieces at thrift stores and estate sales. Each piece is carefully hand-cleaned using natural soaps and restored to a stunning new garment. The finishings, buttons, and thread are also sourced from local thrift stores.

  • Natural dyes

    The founder uses natural dyes from her own flower garden and purchases additional plants from rooftop gardens in the Chicago area. She uses innovative ingredients to add pops of color to her garments such as sundried bugs for red dye and wood chips for yellow dyes.

  • Waste

    Since Laila Textiles uses existing garments, there is not much textile waste. However, any leftover materials are used to create accessories such as scrunchies. For any excess plant materials, Laila Textiles composts them at the community composting center.

Laila Textiles was founded by Liz

Liz Mortensen is a Natural Dye Textile Artist who was born and raised in the Suburbs of Detroit, MI. From a young age, she was interested in textile art and was gifted her first sewing machine at 10 years old. It wasn’t until she was in college that she discovered natural dyes and her love for dyeing textiles. From then on she has taken years to study natural dyes and minerals to learn the science behind natural color. Today, she creates one-of-a-kind naturally-dyed garments in her Chicago Dye Studio. Her brand Laila Textiles was born in 2018 as an outlet to promote the movement of slow fashion and to educate others on natural dye.

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