Hechiane is a family-owned business that designs and handcrafts women’s and men’s clothing and accessories, as well as home furnishings, using various natural dyeing, eco-printing, felting, quilting, and sewing techniques. Hechiane also operates a small farming business. Founded in 2021, we are based in Connecticut, United States.
Hechiane’s Journey and Vision
“I learned the basics of sewing at my mother’s knee.”
My love for textiles emerged when I was a young girl. I am one of five siblings, and my mother often sewed clothes for holiday outfits and special occasions. Watching my mother create and fashion things from fabric that was sometimes upcycled upholstery, I learned the basics of sewing at my mother’s knee. Whether designing and sewing matching Easter Sunday outfits for my four siblings and me, conceptualizing and designing, and then sewing my high school prom dress, tea-dyeing silk fabric that would be made into a headpiece to match my wedding dress, my mother sparked the creativity within me. A passion for nature and a respect for culture was also passed on to me by my parents. As a child I remember my father on weekends hosting movie night in which we all gathered to view a slide show of his travels to Africa with the Peace Corps. I remember the colorful Kaftans worn by the women in the pictures and that’s what I always focused on. My father had one in his closet and I would often just go and touch it to feel the fabric and see the colors up close.
“I began wondering how can I incorporate this beautiful gift of nature into textile art.”
It wasn’t until my late 30s when I started running. It was a way to be outside and discover the beauty in nature that was around me. I would be training for a marathon and often would stop to admire, and then ultimately photograph with my cell phone, a spider web glistening with morning dew or a wintry landscape from the top of a hill or a budding flower sprouting up on the side of the road. It wasn’t all about the run or training, but rather what beautiful thing is out there for me to see and how can I capture it and really feel it? I knew there was something still hidden within me that needed to be nurtured. I began wondering how can I incorporate this beautiful gift of nature into textile art.
“It is a gift to be able to channel my love for nature, fashion and aesthetics through expression using textiles.”
For the past 20 years, I have been mostly sewing clothes and quilting, even owning my a quilt shop for a short time. Something was missing from the perspective of creativity though. During a trip to Vermont, while visiting a local artisan guild gallery, I found the brilliant work of local artists on display and for sale. It was a moment of awakening for me when I browsed through a rack of hand dyed silks and felted garments. The marriage of foliage and natural dye colors to fabrics such as silk and wool and the wearable items made with them was mesmerizing. I quickly jotted down some of the artist’s names and started researching and a whole world of creativity opened up to me. I felt like I finally found my outlet. Natural dyeing, botanical printing, eco-printing, making fabric and canvases from animal fibers and silks, harvesting the dyestuff, creating something to wear, or something to decorate home with, from start to finish, the art of eco-printing and natural dyeing is a most fulfilling way of expression for me. Each leaf, flower, plant is unique and its properties change with the seasons. As an individual, I feel most in touch with the world around me when I am immersed with nature. Our connection with nature is innate. It is a gift to be able to channel my love for nature, fashion and aesthetics through expression using textiles. Like things in nature, we are exclusively and distinctively unique from one another. There is always a time and season in which to transform.
Will you join me on my dyeing journey?