organic Archives - Botanical Colors

FEEDBACK FRIDAY: This Week in Natural Dye Questions

Each week, we are emailed with questions from our natural dye community asking simple and complex questions that we thought might be worth sharing. Here are a handful from this week answered by natural dyer in chief, Kathy Hattori, Founder of Botanical Colors: Are all synthetic dyes made from petroleum? Synthetic dyes are a huge category of colorants and they are derived mainly from benzene or benzene-like chemicals, which are among the primary petrochemicals. When they were first developed, they were called coal-tar dyes as they were developed from coal. Check out this article on our blog that covered this … Read more

5 Things About Natural Dye Production Vs. Synthetic

We’ve learned a lot over 12 years doing natural dye production for fashion brands so we’ve put together “5 Things About Natural Dye Production Vs. Synthetic .” Sustainable design often means a concerted effort to really dig into the details of one’s supply chain but the number of variables to track can be truly overwhelming. One point that is often overlooked in the fashion industry is how fabrics are dyed and treated. In fact, for many designers, there is a fundamental disconnect when sourcing dyed and finished fabrics, even “organic” materials as the information on treatments and finishes are minimal and … Read more

In the News: Botanical Colors on Toxic Color in Fashion

Carolyn Higgins of the Seattle Globalist recently featured Botanical Colors founder Kathy Hattori on toxic textile dyeing. Carolyn writes: “Your soft cotton tee shirt is the ultimate warm fuzzy. Snuggling gratefully into its soft fibers, you feel virtuous about buying a product that was made of natural organic materials. Think of all those barrels of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers that weren’t sprayed on foreign cotton fields thanks to you. Think of the smiling cotton farmers in Turkey and India growing those pure white organic tufts for you to snuggle into. Sigh. Bet you a tidy sum that the label boasting of organic fiber … Read more

Silk & Willow’s Shellie Pomeroy Brings Poetry to American Made

Based in the Hudson Valley in New York, Silk & Willow dyes silk into some of the most poetic, luxe colors we’ve ever seen. Founder Shellie Pomeroy says “I continue to create and explore products that will compliment our ribbon line. I am passionate about hand crafted items of the highest quality and materials sourced from ethical companies. All of the materials used by Silk & Willow are either biodegradable (including the packaging & tags) or can be easily re-used or recycled. A finalist in the Martha Stewart American Made contest which “spotlights the maker, supports the local, and celebrates the handmade,” we also call Pomeroy … Read more