We’re so excited to see our Botanical Colors natural dyes featured with one of our favorite customers on Cool Hunting!
Cool Hunting writes: “Olderbrother, the new clothing line started by Portland, Oregon-based designer Bobby Bonaparte and LA-based Max Kingery, has a whimsical, minimalist aesthetic that is partly influenced by the duo’s fascination with Japanese design and partly by their sly, irreverent attitude towards fashion and clothing.
The brand’s 2015 autumn/winter collection, called “Enthusiasm and Naps,” is comprised of boxy, unisex and deceptively casual garments like sweatshirts, T-shirts and sweatpants, along with two wool coats, button-down oxfords, polos and a gabardine trouser. But the pieces themselves are wrought in luxurious small-batch Japanese woolens and organic cotton, grown sustainably in California’s Central Valley. “Take the kimono,” Bonaparte tells CH. “It’s a universal garment. We’re taking that idea of a universal garment and updating that to our modern cuts of Western clothing. Not too many frills, not too much tailoring. Just garments that everyone can wear regardless of their gender.”
This dedication to natural materials also pays off when it comes to their dye process. Bonaparte and Kingery dye the fabric themselves, tinkering with organic and sustainable materials in a new dye house that they recently opened in Los Angeles. The use of logwood, vitamin-grade iron oxide and indigo produces striking hues of a startling depth, particularly when used with the natural fabrics. “You can really tell how minimally the fabric is processed with the natural dyes,” he says. “Japanese fabrics love the natural dyes. They just take to it really well… Things just aren’t one flat color; there’s a lot of depth. It just looks like it has a lot of character.”
Read the full article on Cool Hunting here.