Daybreak is a softly luminous champagne color with gentle tonal variation. Created using plant-based dye, each piece carries subtle differences in tone—some leaning more neutral, others with a quiet blush undertone.
The process begins with mordanting, an essential step in many natural dye processes. Fabric is soaked in a mordant bath to help bind color to fiber, improving both washfastness and lightfastness while also influencing the final color.
For the botanically dyed colors in Edit .01 (Daybreak and Golden Hour), we use Symplocos, a plant-based mordant derived from the leaves of a tree native to Indonesia. These trees naturally accumulate alum, allowing the leaves to function as a mordant. Because the material is sourced from fallen leaves, it does not require harvesting the trees themselves. Sourced from The Plant Mordant Project by the Bebali Foundation, Symplocos also supports income opportunities for indigenous and rural communities.
Through experimentation, we found that the mordant bath used for Golden Hour could be reused for Daybreak. This reduces both water use and raw material consumption and reflects our effort to build sustainability into every stage of the process. Reusing the mordant bath introduces more variability, contributing to the range of tones seen in Daybreak. We see this variation as part of the character of the piece—a reflection of the materials, the process, and the moment in which it was made.
After mordanting, it’s time to add color.
Daybreak is dyed using powdered oak gall—small tan growths found on many oak trees. They are formed when tiny, non-stinging gall wasps prompt the oak tree to produce a temporary structure that shelters their metamorphosis. Once a new wasp emerges, the oak gall remains.
Rich in tannins, oak galls have been used for centuries to produce both ink and dye.
In Daybreak, the result is a champagne color that moves between neutral and a gentle blush.
