For the second year in a row, we’re teaming up with the Seattle-based team at Botanical Colors to celebrate Earth Day! Like us, Botanical Colors is passionate about protecting the planet and combating the clothing industry’s appalling penchant for waste. Believe it or not, industrial dyeing (part of the “wet” processing stage of garment manufacturing) is one of the leading sources of pollution in the world, not only consuming extraordinary amounts of water and energy resources but also relying on toxic chemicals like chlorine and ammonia. There’s a reason it’s called “wet” processing: it’s estimated that treating a single kilogram of textile goods requires somewhere between 50-100 liters of water. Yikes!
Thankfully, there’s a growing movement within the industry to solve this problem, and Botanical Colors is at its forefront. As they put it, “the way that conventional color is applied to clothing is broken,” and they’re turning towards traditional, natural solutions: plants, roots, bark and other Global Organic Textile Standard-certified materials. Botanical dyes require significantly less water than conventional options, and they’re non-toxic and fully biodegradable. Of course, as you’ll see when you browse the collaborative pieces, they’re also absolutely beautiful.
This year, we developed five special colorways of our signature Heavy Bag Tee—Grey (dyed with logwood), Rust (dyed with madder root), Moss (dyed with pomegranate and iron), Indigo (dyed with—you guessed it—indigo), and Ochre (dyed with pomegranate). We also cooked up a very special edition of The Long Haul Jacket, colored with natural indigo dye and featuring some awesome tie dye detailing. Because they’ve been dyed by hand, each and every piece in The Botanical Dye Collection is unique, we can’t help but well up with gratitude for our incredible planet when we look at them.
Needless to say, we’re honored to be joining forces with Botanical Colors again this year. We love their products (you can grab dyes, raw ingredients, seeds, books and more on their site), but we also love how generous they are with guidance and information. Interested in dyeing an old, faded T-shirt? Or maybe you’ve got a green thumb and you’re looking to grow a dye-oriented garden? Perhaps you’re a budding designer and you need help executing your next line? Whatever project you’re looking to take on, they’ll provide the materials, plus step-by-step instructions to get you started.
Botanical Colors’ commitment to empowering others is genuinely inspiring, and it’s especially relevant on Earth Day. The issues facing our planet can seem downright insurmountable at times, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed at the sheer scale at the problem. The only way we’re going to counteract the greed and myopia at the heart of it all is by banding together, pooling our efforts, and encouraging one another to be better. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but one thing’s for certain—a little color goes a long way in keeping spirits up. We hope you enjoy the pieces in The Botanical Dye Collection, and no matter how you celebrate Earth Day this year, Stay Wild.
