We are excited to introduce you to the man behind our new offering of mordanted T-shirts and blanks. Jasen Bowes of ELSEVVHERE. Jasen Bowes is passionate when it comes to the planet, design, and food. A multi-hyphenate whose creative work is driven by a connection and commitment to the natural world, Jasen strives to highlight ways to work with materials from nature that can be recycled completely or can offer many alternative uses. He has years of fashion industry experience leading him to create a great product we’re excited to present to you.

What initially drew you to the medium of natural dyes? I know you have a love for cooking, can you also tell us a little bit about how these two loves blend together?

I’ve always had a passion for the planet and being in outdoor spaces, so making dyes really seemed to come along organically in my life. I became interested in natural dyeing after reading some vintage dye books my mom sent me in a care package a number of years ago. She sells collectible books and often offloads big boxes of books my way – it’s a real treat – typically boxes full of old cookbooks and craft books. I love living a creative life and tinkering as often as possible, so I welcome the packages.  Reading Ida Grae’s book “Nature’s Colors: Dyes from Plants” and other dyeing books from the 70’s really piqued my interest in dyeing. I had no idea so many colors existed from plants.

My love for cooking goes back to my teens when I worked in restaurants after school. I’ve been cooking for friends and family for over 35 years, refining my skills as the years rolled on. Cooking is so meditative to me. It brings me so much pleasure to be in my kitchen preparing a meal for friends or my family.  I rarely cook with a recipe choosing instead to play with the ingredients in hope of creating something super tasty and new.

Over the past couple years I decided to focus my dye practice on plants I was cooking with. My family decided to start really focussing on eating seasonally, visiting our local farmers market every weekend and only eating what was available each week. I learned about cooking rutabaga, pickling when there were weeks of abundance, and fermenting plants that were about to go off. My cooking skills blossomed during this time. Getting in tune with the seasonality of plants really helped my dye practice flourish too. I began asking local farmers to ask for plant waste , following when different fruits were at their peak, and creating dyes through the seasons.

I think this whole process has really changed my life for the better. The cooking helped me pay attention to the plants every day of the year and the plants helped me live more slowly and more deliberately.  My cooking skills are not at the level of a four star chef, but I am super stoked where things are at. Dyeing happens far more often because of all the cooking and I’ve really pushed to more creative realms through the process. I journal daily about what’s going on with the plants in my area while also taking pictures as each season progresses. I look forward to what the future will show me.  What the plants will teach me and how they will feed me.

Jasen, tell us a little bit about your industry experience and how was Elsevvhere founded?

After many years working in contemporary fashion and outdoor sports I had a nagging need to become an activist for the planet. My work with global retailers and brands such as Levi’s, Burton Snowboards, Urban Outfitters, Pendleton Woolen Mills and more had me traveling the globe at an alarming pace. While I was bouncing around the globe I was becoming more aware of the damage to the planet that was being done by the fashion industry, the food industry, and the travel industry. It became my mission to find better ways to live and design. During those years of work I also had a hand in pushing sustainable practices forward by being a co-creator of the alternative fiber called Polylana (an alternative fiber to acrylic), co-founder of Arvin Goods (originally launched as a recycled cotton sock brand) and was involved in the early stages of creating what is now AWARE (a traceability platform for fashion manufacturing transparency).

In 2014 I created ELSEVVHERE, a creative platform that gave me my own personal space to create, educate and elevate a larger community of creatives about working with lower impact inputs whenever possible. It was about making less, making things that have meaning and making them last. It was also about using low impact or upcycled inputs and sharing the backstory all along the way. I think everyone needs a place to dream, to play and to create. ELSEVVHERE serves that purpose for me.  It allows me to stay curious in a child-like way. I see ELSEVVHERE as something I can continue to evolve over my entire life. It’s intended to meander as I become enamored with ideas and practices I have yet to experience which allows me a broad path to play on. It’s my creative experiment. Recently I’ve been working on a book that aligns my cooking, my photography, my writing and my passion for natural dyes that i’m excited to release very soon.

Talk to us about this unbranded shirt – how did you get here? We would love to know your thoughts on circularity in fashion as well.

Wow, I’m not sure I have enough space here to rant about fashion and circularity so I’ll spare you a deep dive. Instead I think this collection is a great example of how we can all do better, starting in the concept phase when we design an item.  Starting a design with circularity in mind is imperative for creatives if we’re going to move to a circular system that has little to no impact on our planet. In my opinion the only way to have zero impact is to not make anything new, but that probably isn’t going to be a reality that happens any time soon, or ever. The next best way forward in my opinion is to remove plastics from our clothing, toxic dyes from our garments and water systems, use single fiber designs so those items can be easily recycled, and to keep the footprint as small as possible.

This product for Botanical Colors was created with the concept of being fully recyclable. It is made entirely of cotton- both organic and recycled. Even the threads used to construct the garments are 100% cotton.  Typically threads used to connect clothing have a nylon core to the thread, but not this product. 

The project came together because of my good friend and colleague Ryan Holderbaum.  We’ve known each other for over 20 years, always crossing paths at fashion trade shows and on the fashion circuit. Ryan was excited to work together and originally called me up after seeing results from my natural dye practice out in the field through collaborations with brands like Outerknown, Peace Cabin and others, as well as philanthropic projects for ‘No Kid Hungry’ which I built each holiday season to raise money to feed kids in need.” Ryan had an idea to make better ‘blanks’ and thought it might have a real impact for craft and professional dyers alike.

After some collaboration (Ryan is skilled at working with Jersey and Fleece – T’s and Sweats – and I added my knowledge base in circular practices) the decision was made to work on classic silhouettes of jersey and fleece that could be used by dyers (and others) that were made better than what exists currently. An offering of product that could be recycled over and over again, without any use of plastics, made with recycled and organic fibers in a facility with the highest level of standards.

It is nameless because to us it’s not about the brand name we could build up and market, it’s about getting a great product in the hands of natural dyers.  It’s not about us, it’s about the person who really cares about the garment, cares about the planet, and cares about the artistic flair that they add to it. We built five silhouettes – a crew sweatshirt, a t – shirt, a long-sleeve t, a hoodie, and a sweatpant. You can see them all on my site and you can grab many of them for your dye practice at Botanical Colors.

I also need to state that we can always do better.  This product was made in China in a GRS and GOTS mill which hold very high standards for how the inputs are handled and used, but it’s located a bazillion miles away ( i mean, not really it’s more like 6500 miles) from the USA. It is shipped on a boat to the US which is better than flying it here, but the foot print is not as small as it could be.  We will continue to find ways to make the footprint smaller and the inputs cleaner every time we conceptualize and build a new range of goods.

Transparency and mindfulness also are a part of your practice. Why is this important to you?

The Covid – 19 pandemic taught me that being close to home, close to my wife and teenage daughter, were far more important than anything else in this world. When the world stopped for a moment I had enough time to pause. I realized during that time that I needed to refocus where I put my time and energy. It has been the best decision I have ever made in my adult life, even if it comes with financial challenges I wasn’t used to facing. The travel stopped, I walked away from the hectic work life that was completely imbalanced, choosing a slow life over a life that was based on convenience and speed.

Furthermore, I believe I have a duty to help educate people about what goes on behind the scenes in fashion and in food. I see fashion and food about to converge in a way that will be an awakening for the global public. The more people know the true path of how their food is grown or how their clothing is made gives everyone a better opportunity to use their time and money to help drive change. I’m still a student in this life, but I learn more every day and I want to share what I have learned with anyone who has time to care.

I believe Natural and medicinal dyes are better for your body and the planet, but I also acknowledge that we can’t take all fashion in this direction swiftly. I’ve visited some amazing mills capable of commercial natural dyeing and I can’t believe what they’re able to do with their product and how they capture waste and water. There are only a few places on that planet that are even trying to do this at scale, but it’s encouraging to see what they’ve come up with. I also think there’s really cool work going on with growing cultures to create color in Europe. People are pushing for new ways to color our lives and they’re doing it slowly and cautiously, but progress is happening. 

I fear If we move too fast without thinking through our actions we’re going to use up all our natural resources chasing a new idea. I personally know when foraging for dye materials to leave plenty behind for the animals, the bees and for the health of the plant and planet. If we try to use these naturally occurring plants to mass produce products, or we move too swiftly in this direction as a massive movement, we could create the same wrongs we’re already seeing in the fashion and food world. I believe we have to be smarter as we look ahead by using less, consuming less, mending, sharing, etc. 

The ways of our grandparents were slow and thoughtful. Small farms and small dye houses worked locally back then. Life was a bit more balanced if you ask me. Now so much of that farm land is gone and the dye houses too.  I’d like to think we can get back to that style of living if we all actually try. Maybe we can then influence others to do the same. Who knows, if enough people join in then maybe we can build a movement and heal our soils and people can live a more mellow and clean existence.

My favorite question to ask: If you were a color, which would you be?

Lately I have been really drawn to grey and all the nuances of that color.  Playing with food stuffs as dyes I often find most of them to be tannin rich. So when I modify them with iron salts I get so many interesting grays. There was a time when I was going to devote my entire dye practice to grays, but then I decided instead to devote my entire dye practice to edible plants.  I still get plenty of grays, but also a range of great colors that I would not have been able to enjoy had I chosen grey only.

*My gut was to immediately say “sea foam green” because I grew up in the 80’s and have always had a soft spot in my heart for that color – Or in dyer’s terms, “robin egg blue” that you can get from a fresh indigo leaf mash with salt.

Anything fun coming up we should be on the lookout for?

I’m working on a book series or maybe one large book (still in the design phase) about cooking with dye plants, or dyeing with plants you use to cook with that will be published in the very near future. I really want to lean into a super artsy format, but the publishers in queue would probably not want it to be as wild as I envision.  Maybe I’ll just go for it and self-publish to keep all the creative control, but only time will tell. I expect to combine the book concept with some events to celebrate the launch by helping people learn to cook and learn to dye too. It kinda blows my mind how many people don’t cook any more so maybe learning to dye with plants will connect people to nature like it did for me . Maybe a couple other twists and turns up my sleeve too if I can find the time and energy in 2025.

JB – “ Can I give some shout outs?”

I want Niki Tsukamoto (@lookoutandwonderland), Madeleine McGarrity (@coldanddeadly), Kara Gilbert (@vibrantvalleyfarm), Erin Berkowitz (@berbo.studio), Graham Keegan (@yesgraham), Christine James(@island_farmstudio) , Liz Spencer (@thedogwooddyer), Jamie Young (@thebarefootdyer) and of course – Cara Marie Piazza (@caramariepiazza) and Kathy Hattori (@botanicalcolors) to know that my journey to learning about dyeing and working with plants would not be even close to as rad if it wasn’t for each one of you and your inspiring work. I look forward to learning new ways to work with plants and dyes in my studio and kitchen for many years to come. For those of you who have taken time to notice me, to teach me (typically via DM without even really knowing me at first), and to give me dye plants from your farm or garden – thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I really hope everyone benefits from working with these blanks at Botanical Colors. Enjoy! – X Jasen 

(@thisiselsevvhere) www.elsevvhere.com 

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