Leaf Transfer Print Shirts
As SS22 comes to a close, we’ve still got a few releases lined up that will carry us into fall. One of these releases that we are incredibly excited about is our Leaf Transfer Print Vacation Shirt, which releases both in store and online this upcoming Thursday, July 7th. This iteration of our vacation shirt features a medium weight 100% Hemp fabric with imprints of different leaves and flowers scattered all over.
Our factory in India partnered with a printer that utilizes a completely natural dyeing process used to create these shirts. No two shirts are alike as each one features a unique combination of leaves from different species of plants. Each type of plant takes to the fabric differently, creating some slight variation in both natural print pattern and transfer of color. The process begins with the print house gathering various leaves to print with. Once all the different leaves are gathered and arranged artfully across the fabric, the tannins and acids naturally found in the plants bind to the fabric through a process of heat and moisture that is usually accomplished through rolling the fabric and steaming it for a few hours. The hemp base fabric that we used contains no dye or bleach, which allows for the natural dye from the plant to bind to it most effectively and show clearly. This process is very resource and labor-intensive and as such, our printers can only make small batches of fabric at a time. Our factory received enough fabric to run 50 shirts on this first go.
While it takes an intricate process to create the pattern, each shirt has a relatively neutral color palette overall that pairs nicely with nearly anything. Some are wilder than others but all of them are super easy to wear. As is the case with our denim, this pattern will gently fade over time, both from washing and exposure to the sun. Feel free to dress it up or down, you really can’t go wrong. We’re very excited with how these shirts turned out and hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Look for them to hit our NY & LA flagships and 3sixteen.com on Thursday, July 7th at noon EDT.
