DEGEN x Botanical Colors

May 19, 2025

Natural dyeing is an art that is endlessly intimidating to me. So I find myself gravitating to makers who are great at it and share their tips and process with the world. I love looking at the giant array of colors that come from plants, bugs, mushrooms, leaves and follow along as if one day I will get into it but also knowing that I might be opening a pandoras box if I do. Knitting takes so long that adding the next step of the process whether that be dyeing or spinning or tending to a flock seems like a leap that I always am tempted to make but am still fearful of doing.

Nonetheless, I follow along as if one day I will get into it. My favorite natural dyer that I follow is Botanical Colors by Kathy Hattori. I love their education centered approach inviting people in and trying to de-mystify the magic that is coloring things with woodchips or remnants of foods. One of the most challenging aspects of natural dye for probably all beginners is the concept of mordanting which is prepping the fabric to accept and retain the color. If you do not do this step, the fabric will not hold the dye. And as such they have a whole section of their site called Mordant Mondays where they answer questions from the community.

I just LOVE this company (and Kathy) and I am so excited to have collaborated with them on a capsule collection of 3 pieces.

I started the process by scouring their site for inspiring colors. One thing I find fascinating about the colors is the range and depth you can get with small alterations. I knew I needed to have an indigo element in the collection after seeing the below image.

We built the collection starting with a deep bright indigo. It wouldn't be a DEGEN thing without a yellow. Kathy sent many color swatches to choose from to get in the approximate range that I wanted.

The last color we added was lilac inspired by the beautiful color create by logwood. The total line up of materials we landed on was Indigo, Pomegranate-Marigold-Onion Skin, and Logwood and Madder. The pieces I wanted to work on were the Block Tank and Bind Off Tee. Because the Bind off Tee already had a lot going on, I wanted to keep that one solid color. Here is Zach hand dipping each white Bind Off Tee by hand into the indigo vat.

The other two colors for the Block Tanks I wanted to have more depth so the process was more of a sprinkle and speckle effect.

The final result was tanks that had a lighter dyed base with a randomly placed speckle. Each garment slightly different representing the mark that the dye stuff left after being sprinkled by hand. I find that process to be so special.

Lastly we had to bring these beautiful garments to life with a photoshoot with our favorites, Apparition. We shot this collection on a model as well as on a group of my artist-friends. I felt that showing Kathy Hattori's work on artists would really showcase the beauty of the work. We photographed Serra Victoria Bothwell Fells, Wu Hanyen, and Emily Lindberg (and also I hopped in) in Emily and Wu's beautiful home in Providence, RI.

The capsule drops Thursday May 22nd at 10ET and will be with us at Field and Supply.

Here is a link to their studio visit interview with me

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DEGEN x Botanical Colors