To see any of our dark blue fabric, navy fabric, navy blue fabric and indigo fabric simply click on the images on the right hand side of this webpage.

Dark blues such as navy are ideal for upholstery - they look timelessly smart and are very resistant to family wear and tear. They also make very classy curtains and scatter cushions.

Choose dark blue and you give an impression of wealth and luxury, as dark blues have long been associated with royalty and the aristocracy. This is because, in times gone by, dark blue dye was very expensive to make and difficult to use.

The name of the color "indigo" is taken from the plant Indigofera tinctoria from which the dye was originally extracted. The word, used as a colour name, is first found in English in 1289

The Indigo plant, Indigofera tinctoria, common name True Indigo, is the original source of Indigo dye and is grown in parts of Asia and Africa. The indigo shrub is a legume and so is grown by farmers between other crops, in crop rotation systems, as ground cover and to improve the nitrogen context of the soil

Although most indigo dye is now produced by chemical industrial processes, natural dye from the indigoferra plant is still available and sold as a natural colouring. To obtain the dye from the plant the leaves are soaked and fermented and then pressed into cakes and ultimately powdered.

Navy blue is that very dark shade of blue which gets its name from the dark blue with white uniforms worn by Royal Navy officers since 1748 and adopted by many other navies across the globe. Initially the colour was called 'marine blue', but its adoption by the Navy meant that its name was soon changed to navy blue. More recently it is commonly just referred to as "navy", without the "blue".

Ironically many navies, such as the US navy, now adopt black for the dark colour of their uniforms as this obviates difficulties in colour matching.