Seeds of strength and beauty: Fashions steeped in Island roots

Do you wear your love for Shelter Island on your sleeve? Now, you can wrap yourself in garments that are dyed in botanical colors made from natural materials found on the Island.

This summer, visit Hiywet Mimi Girma’s pop-up shops at Moussa Drame’s fitness center in the Dering Harbor Inn on Winthrop Road, to see the fashions made in her YESAET workshops in Brooklyn. Ms. Girma explained that she has found just the right sources for her fabric dyes on the Island: Maria’s Kitchen supplies avocado skins and seeds; Sylvester Manor contributes beets and onionskins; and Shelter Island Florist proprietor Becky Smith provides flowers that are no longer fresh enough to sell, but still retain the color to dye the fabrics.

“Maria said, ‘How many times a week do you want to pick up the avocado skins?’ Ms. Girma said. “I love that it’s immigrant women helping each other.”

Ms. Girma had a pop-up shop last summer at Sylma Cabrera’s Pure Soul boutique on Bridge Street, itself a source of one-of-a-kind fashions.

The YESAET pop-up shops will launch at the Dering Harbor fitness center, beginning on June 4 and will be open between 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays through June, and on Fridays beginning in July.

Ms. Girma said it was a “huge coincidence” that she is now collaborating with Mr. Drame, who comes from Mali. “I grew up in the Ivory Coast,” she said, “and he was competing in tennis there.” When she began coming to Shelter Island, she brought her son to Mr. Drame’s tennis lessons. “Now, as part of the Island community, there are so many threads that connect us.”