An OD+PBJ Collaboration | The Natural Kakishibu Dyed Slub Tee

We’ve teamed up yet again with our friends from PBJ, to develop a marriage of supreme texture and traditional dyeing techniques. Turning again to the quintessentially Japanese Kakishibu (persimmon fruit), we embarked on a journey with Iwaya-san to create a natural canvas in the form of a tee, with no two pieces being the same.

Producing Natural Kakishibu dye is a notoriously slow process, which starts with harvesting the unripe fruit during Summer. The extracted juices must then undergo a one-year fermentation and storage process, in order to remove impurities such as organic acids prior to being refined as a dye. There is no exact science behind producing the "correct" hue of Kakishibu given the amount of variables which can effect the final resulting dye. Factors such as the quality of the fruit, fermentation method, season and even weather all tie into the production of creating this natural dye. 

Each individual tee goes through a labor-intensive process of being garment dyed by hand. A single round of the dip dyeing process involves immersing the tee in the Kakishibu dye before wringing it once/twice, followed by line-drying. This same process must be repeated 7-8 times in order to achieve the desired warm hue of brown.

Due to the irregularity of the yarns forming the fabric base, skin contact is minimized  to ensure that each wearer can enjoy the fruits of their labor in comfort and over extended wear.