Somewhere between the first wash and the tenth, most kids' clothing reveals what it's really made of. The colors fade unevenly. The fabric pills. And if you've ever noticed a rash where a tight waistband sits, you've probably wondered, even briefly, what's actually in those dyes. Naturally dyed children's clothing is a different thing entirely: colored with plant extracts, minerals, and traditional dyeing methods that have been used for centuries before petroleum became cheap. The process is slower. And for kids with sensitive skin, or parents who'd rather not think too hard about what's touching their child all day, it's worth knowing what the difference actually is.
What "naturally dyed" actually means
The short version: conventional clothing gets its color from synthetic dyes, petroleum-based chemicals developed in the mid-1800s when chemists figured out how to make vivid, stable pigments from coal tar. They work extremely well. They're cheap, consistent, and the colors stay bright for a long time. The downside is everything else.
Natural dyes come from things that grew in the ground, the sea, or the side of a mountain: leaves, roots, flowers, bark, minerals, even single-celled algae that convert sunlight into pigment. The colors are different from what you get with synthetic dyes. Natural pigment has variation and depth that synthetic dyes can't replicate. That's not a limitation. That's what real color looks like.
Why the dye question is worth asking
A class of synthetic dyes called azo dyes are used in roughly 70% of the world's textiles. Some azo dyes break down into aromatic amines, compounds that have been linked to skin sensitization and, at higher exposures, more serious health concerns. The EU restricts certain azo dyes in children's clothing specifically. In the US, brands using synthetic dyes aren't required to do safety testing. Some do. Many don't.
Then there's the environmental side. Conventional textile dyeing is the second-largest source of water pollution globally. The process requires high heat, large volumes of water, and a range of chemical fixatives, and in factories without rigorous wastewater treatment, those chemicals end up downstream. Choosing naturally dyed kids' clothing means opting out of that supply chain, which matters whether or not you ever think about it again.
How it actually works
There's no single "natural dyeing" method. It depends entirely on what material is being dyed and what color you're after.
For our woven fabrics, like the railroad and umbrella stripe styles, one of the most interesting developments happening right now is algae-based dyeing. Algae are cultivated in controlled systems where photosynthesis converts sunlight into pigment. That pigment is applied cold, with no heat and no harsh chemicals, which does two important things: it preserves the natural integrity of the fiber (heat is genuinely hard on organic cotton over time), and it eliminates the energy cost of heating large industrial dye baths. The spent dye, rather than being discharged as wastewater, can be composted or used for irrigation. There's no harmful runoff. It's a closed system in a way that conventional dyeing essentially never is.
For our sweaters, the tradition of plant-based dyeing goes back centuries. Andean artisans have been using native flowers, roots, leaves, and mountain plants to color wool long before synthetic chemistry existed. The best natural yarn producers today are doing essentially the same thing: small-batch dyeing, botanical dye sources, tested to confirm there are no heavy metals or synthetic contaminants in the finished yarn. The colors that come out of this process have a depth that's genuinely hard to replicate. They absorb light differently than synthetic dyes. They're not flat.
Both of these processes are slower and more expensive than running fabric through a conventional dye house. That's why most brands don't do it.
What to actually expect from naturally dyed clothes
This is the part I want to be honest about, because it's where people sometimes feel let down if no one warned them ahead of time.
Naturally dyed garments change over time. They may fade slightly, especially with sun exposure. They might deepen in some places and lighten in others after repeated washing. This isn't a manufacturing defect. It's the behavior of natural pigment on natural fiber. If you've ever had a pair of jeans that got better-looking the longer you wore them, the idea is similar. The garment is aging rather than degrading.
Care is simple: cold water wash, gentle detergent, dry in the shade. Avoiding direct sunlight while drying helps keep the tones even. The slight color variation you'll see between two pieces of the same style is intentional. It's how you know it's not a machine printing the same thing over and over.
How to shop for naturally dyed kids' clothing
Ask directly. Most brands that work with natural dyes will tell you. It's a selling point, not a trade secret. If a brand claims their clothing is "non-toxic" or "safe for sensitive skin" without specifying the dye source, that's a vague claim worth following up on.
GOTS certification (Global Organic Textile Standard) is one useful signal. It can cover the full production chain, including dyeing practices, and it can also just be a fiber based certification. But not every small brand that genuinely uses natural dyes has pursued formal certification because small factories and brands don’t always have access to the certifications that can be costly. Other things you can ask: Are the dyes plant-based, mineral-based, or algae-based? Is the dyeing done in small batches? Those are reasonable questions, and a brand that actually knows its supply chain should be able to answer them.
For what it's worth: every piece in our naturally dyed collections at League of Friends is colored using either algae-based dye for our woven styles, or botanical plant dyes sourced from Peruvian leaves, flowers, roots, and native plants for our sweater yarns. Both come from factories that think about the full lifecycle of what they're making, which is the thing I keep returning to every time I make a sourcing decision.
None of this is easy or fast to produce. Natural dye baby clothes, naturally dyed toddler sweaters, plant-dyed organic cotton dresses. They cost more to make, and that cost shows up in the price. But I'd rather sell fewer pieces I genuinely believe in than more of something I'd have to work to justify. That's not a marketing position. It's just the decision I made when I started this brand, and one I haven't wanted to undo.
These pieces are made to be worn more than once. When your kids outgrow them, our Trade-Back program lets you return them for store credit — so the clothes (and the dyes) get a second life.
Browse the League of Friends naturally dyed collection HERE.