About
Üs
Studio Kühü is where colour becomes language — a conversation between nature, art, craft, and story.
Founded by textile artist and designer Mariana Leyva, Studio Kühü is a London-based natural dye studio rooted in her Mexican heritage and shaped by her life in the UK. The studio bridges craft, sustainability, and cultural storytelling, transforming the ancient art of natural dyeing into a contemporary dialogue between materials and memory.
Through a circular and regenerative process, Studio Kühü offers a healthier alternative for the skin and the senses, creating textiles that breathe with the body and tell stories of colour inspired by the seasons and the rich botany of the American continent.
Kühü means “colour” in the Otomí language, still spoken in central Mexico — a word that reflects the botanical richness, ancestral heritage, and artisanal mastery that inspire the studio’s work.
We work exclusively with the highest-quality natural and organic materials, paying tribute to the vibrant diversity of the Americas — particularly Mexico, Mariana’s birthplace and the heart behind Studio Kühü.
At Kühü, colour is not surface but substance — a vessel for care, transformation, and connection.
Manifesto
We see colour as memory, transformation, and ritual.
At Studio Kühü, natural dyeing is understood as ancestral alchemy — a dialogue between plants, minerals, water, and cloth. Each hue is born from patience and transformation, carrying stories that have travelled across centuries and cultures.
Our practice is regenerative — it does not end at sustainability. We return to the soil with respect, reusing dye baths, composting plant matter, and working with food waste and botanicals that might otherwise be discarded.
We honour impermanence, the quiet shifts of time, and the beauty of imperfection.
By sharing knowledge through workshops, education, and collaborations, we nurture community as much as textiles.
Studio Kühü exists to regenerate — the soil, the craft, and our sense of connection to nature and to one another.
Each naturally dyed piece is created with care and requires a gentle, mindful approach. Colours shift with wear and time, carrying the traces of life — much like we do.
Echoing the Nahua vision of in xóchitl in cuícatl — beauty in what is fleeting, truth in impermanence — and the philosophy of Wabi-sabi, we embrace imperfection as a form of beauty, and change as a form of truth.
Every piece is an offering — a gesture of reverence, resistance, and renewal.
The Hands behind Studio Kühü
My practice is rooted in the poetry of colour and the quiet transformation of natural materials. I work with plants, minerals, and time — listening to what each fibre and pigment wants to reveal.
Mariana Leyva is a fashion designer and textile artist from Mexico City, working purely with natural dyes.
Her practice bridges tradition and innovation, blending ancestral knowledge with contemporary design.
Educated in Mexico, Spain, Italy, and London, Mariana worked across different areas of the Mexican fashion industry before moving to the UK, where she founded Studio Kühü in 2017 to dedicate herself fully to natural dyeing.
Her work expresses her Mexican heritage and UK influence with a contemporary aesthetic. Mariana continues to explore the power of plants and their non-verbal and chemical ways of communicating with us.
Her colour palettes often combine dyes from the Americas with locally sourced flowers and plants, applied through ancient techniques on UK and European materials. Each piece is a homage to nature and an expression of her respect for Mother Earth.
Not only for nature’s gifts of colour, form, and texture, but also for the need to embrace a sustainable and circular economy, as it once was.
Mariana has had the privilege to work, collaborate, and learn from makers, designers, natural dyers, environmentalists, artists, and scientists who have profoundly influenced her practice and outlook.
Through her work with natural dyeing and sustainable methods, Mariana has become an advocate, dedicating her energy to sharing, teaching, and contributing to the reevaluation of fashion and its role in a sustainable world.
She says, “Studio Kühü may not be the biggest brick in the pile, but foundations are made of many — and the strength to influence and create change comes from the collective.”
How we Work
A dialogue between nature, art, craft, and care
At Studio Kühü, we approach each project as a collaboration between nature and the wearer. From bespoke dyeing to garment transformation and creative collaborations, our services are rooted in care, circularity, and storytelling — offering colour as a form of renewal.
Our dye baths are reused, water is filtered and returned to our plants, and plant matter is composted — creating a closed, respectful cycle. Alongside these services, Studio Kühü occasionally releases limited Studio editions of unique, hand-dyed pieces, crafted with care and intention in our London studio. Each piece we create is hand-dyed, crafted with love, and accompanied by plastic-free packaging, designed to protect both the textile and the earth.
We invite you to explore our Techniques Gallery to discover our materials, colours, and processes — where ancestral methods meet contemporary design.
At Studio Kühü, every process begins with intention and care. We work exclusively with natural fibres and with garments entrusted to us by our clients — silks, cottons, linens, or natural blends that become new canvases for colour and transformation.
Our dye palette is created from a carefully selected range of natural dyes — botanical, mineral, and algae-based pigments that reflect the seasons, the soil, and the stories behind each colour.
Our services are personalised, guided by each client’s story and vision.
We invite you to explore the options below and select the service that best fits your piece. Once you’ve chosen, please contact us to book a consultation.
A Second Story for Your Wedding Dress
For post-wedding pieces seeking a new life through natural dyeing, redesign, or symbolic transformation.
These processes can include colour renewal, reworking, or ritual closure.
Reimagine Your Garments
Give your favourite pieces a second life through natural dyeing, mindful mending, and slow craft.
Collaborations & Commissions
Bespoke projects for brands, artists, and designers, where Studio Kühü’s botanical palette and circular approach become part of a shared creative vision.
Education & Workshops
Hands-on learning experiences that connect participants with the history, materials, and rituals of natural dyeing.
Fabrics
Every fibre we choose tells a story — of origin, care, and renewal.
For our Studio Editions, we work exclusively with natural fibres such as silk, cotton, linen, wool, alpaca, and bamboo — alongside carefully selected off-cuts and deadstock materials.
For Studio Kühü pieces, we prioritise sourcing from local and sustainable suppliers, always ensuring traceability and respect for the environment, the planet, and workers’ conditions.
Each fabric becomes a canvas for colour, transformation, and story — garments and textiles that live, breathe, and carry memory.
Networks & Recognition
Studio Kühü is part of a growing movement for regenerative craft and conscious design.
These platforms reflect our shared commitment to transparency, local materials and natural colour as a form of care.
These platforms reflect our shared commitment to transparency, local materials and natural colour as a form of care.
