Urban Colour Junkie wows with unique tie-dye designs

By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya

Creativity can be channelled through various forms, whether it is art, music, or dance, and many get creative with crafts like crochet, knitting, jewellery-making, or origami. While experimenting with crafts as a hobby is done by many, some manage to convert their hobbies into successful business ventures.

Urban Colour Junkie is one such venture and their tie-dye products, which include cushion covers, notebooks, and table mats, are eye-catching and unique. Launched two years ago, Urban Colour Junkie is a venture by Rumaiza Refai, whose interest in tie-dye began as a DIY project to keep herself occupied during the weekends. Having graduated in interior design in 2015, Refai began working fulltime in the field and spent her weekends experimenting with various DIY projects.

“The process, along with its irregular yet unique outcome, was just stunning,” she said, explaining that each time she folded or tied a piece of fabric and dyed it, the pattern turned out different and unique. “The fact that it was almost impossible to repeat the exact design was something that inspired to me turn this into my very own startup venture,” Refai said, adding, “It felt a lot like the perfect avenue to channel my creativity.”

In April 2017, Refai launched Urban Colour Junkie and experimented with batik and block printing, in addition to tie-dye. “I don’t consider myself the traditional batik artist, rather a more contemporary one. Geometric designs are what have most often caught my attention,” Refai said. While her knowledge and experience in interior design allows her to focus on the numerous ways of using fabric within an interior to enhance a given space, art has always been a part of her life, whether in the form of painting, model-making, or theatre. It is this drive of creativity that pushed her to start Urban Colour Junkie.

Refai added that all her products are handmade and she dyes them herself. The team behind Urban Colour Junkies thus consists of herself, with the support of her family and friends. “My parents are a major part of the team as they’re constantly helping me out when it comes to the process of getting my products together,” she said, adding, “on the other hand, I have my brother and a handful of friends who are always helping me brainstorm to come up with new ideas for my product range.”

According to Refai, the main part of production is the cutting and dying process and this takes place at her residence. She, however, outsources the tailoring to low income communities that prefer working from the comfort of their homes.

“I don’t ideally stick to one particular tailor or seamstress. Instead I look for opportunities where I can possibly help someone in need who is in search for work,” Refai said. She added that, quality is a key factor to her and that, if she comes across someone who is not very neat in their work, she trains them to the best of her capability along with many YouTube tutorials. “Eventually they find their way to the neatest possible outcome,” Refai said.

Urban Colour Junkie designs are inspired by various aspects of art and when Refai first started out, it was her love for colour that inspired her to produce a range of colourful products. “That pop of colour is something I believe adds life to a given space,” she explained.

“As for my latest collection, the inspiration for the tie-dye patterns were a result of my curiosity to try out various folding and tying techniques where the final patterns would take me by surprise,” Refai said, adding, “On the other hand, the majority of my batik and block printing inspiration was drawn from various forms of geometric textile patterns such as mud cloth which is one of the best known African cloth traditions.”

While orders can be placed by sending a message to Urban Colour Junkie on Instagram and Facebook, they also started retailing at Beverly Street, Bambalapitiya in September. The material used for all interior products are 100% cotton. However, Refai uses viscose and pure silk when clients request fabric for customised clothing. 

“When I started Urban Colour Junkie, I never thought I would be selling fabric alone as well but then there was quite the demand for the product after which we added it to our product range,” she said, adding that Urban Colour Junkie was recently approved by Good Market.

Refai’s products have also been featured at various pop-up sales, starting in December 2017 at the AOD Alumni pop-up. This was followed by Craftholic 2017. These first few sales were not that exciting, however, as very few sales were made. In 2018, however, Urban Colour Junkies was at the June edition of the Colombo Design Market, a platform Refai has always wanted to be part of. “I still remember when Colombo Design Market launched their very first creative market space back in 2014, I was truly inspired to be a part of this creative community someday and have my own brand at the Design Market,” Refai said.

This year, Urban Colour Junkie was at the AOD Alumni pop-up sale as well as Colombo Design Market. “All of these sales have been good learning experiences when it comes to designing and expanding my product line,” she explained. The success of the brand can be partly attributed to their unique designs which can’t be replicated to an exact decimal. “We’re constantly on the lookout for new ideas which may not have been seen around our island as yet but still interest our clients,” Refai said.

As for expanding the brand, Refai said they are now moving from soft furnishing like cushion covers, table mats, and wall hangings to solid furniture like humpties and floor seats. They also hope to move to solid furniture upholstery eventually.

Pix by Shehan Gunasekara