Hue goes there? Winona Quigley. As the co-founder and CEO of Green Matters Natural Dye, she’s convincing brands to color garments with natural sources instead of harmful synthetics—an initiative that landed her on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. She also just partnered with Stitch Fix on Mohnton Made, a new plant-dyed line produced in her home state of Pennsylvania.

Ahead of the collection launch, we chatted with the 28-year-old about the industry’s synthetic dye problem, how her work supports her great-grandmother’s legacy, and what dye-it-yourself projects we can try at home.

When did you realize the fashion industry had a dye problem?
I have a background in fashion design and had set out to be part of the traditional fashion world. I was doing an internship with Marc Jacobs and getting to know textile vendors. Seeing how these products are developed, I started to understand that the dyes and finishes typically used [by] design houses were having a detrimental effect on the environment. I started doing my own research into natural dyes, and in 2013, I was doing experiments in a soup pot in my kitchen.

How long did that trial phase take?
I worked on that research for about 2 years before starting Green Matters. It was initially going to be a clothing line, but a mentor helped me understand that there are plenty of clothing lines, but there weren’t any dye houses offering this solution to designers. In 2015, we launoffering only a plant dye service. At the time, we were dying things by hand, but as we grew, we were able to invest in industrial equipment similar to what synthetic dye houses use. That changed the type of clients we were able to work for and the scale we [could] dye at.

What’s so harmful about synthetic dyes?
Most dyes [are] developed to bind to the fiber in a very permanent way. The wastewater generated by producing synthetic dyes has chemicals—sometimes carcinogenic—that are being dumped into global waterways. These chemicals don’t break down, so they prevent UV rays from reaching the bottom of the riverbed, which totally disrupts the aquatic ecosystems. This becomes a compounding problem where it starts by [dye chemicals] being dumped into a river—often in a country that doesn’t have regulation preventing this type of pollution—and ends up not only killing the aquatic life nearby, but also affecting people who live nearby and are working in the dye house. There are links to cancer and things like that.

Why do a lot of fashion houses still use synthetic dyes?
Synthetic dyes are often cheaper and a lot more predictable. You can produce 100k units and they’re going to be exactly the same shade. Natural dye is going to have a bit more variation. We’re typically working with clients who understand that 2 shirts from 2 different [batches] are going to be slightly different. Additionally, natural dyes haven’t been offered on an industrial scale, so [they] just haven’t been an alternative for a lot of designers. We’re one of the only businesses in North America able to scale natural dyes.

How did you get linked with Stitch Fix?
We got connected with Stitch Fix in part because we’re so local to them. [Their] Mohnton facility is 30 minutes from us, so when they were developing this product, their team found out about us really quickly. With Stitch Fix, we worked with 3 different plants as part of the launch: madder root, myrobalan, and cutch. These are dyes [where] a person can get a naturally dyed shirt, but also expect that the color will last for a long time.

What was it like working with such a big brand?
The Stitch Fix project is really meaningful to me because my great-grandmother was a seamstress here in Pennsylvania from the 1940s until the ‘80s, which is about the time when a lot of clothing manufacturing started to go overseas. She passed away in 2018, but I developed an emotional attachment to this project because I realized how proud she would be to see me working on [something] totally produced in Pennsylvania. What’s really special about this [line] is that there are textile and sewing jobs being created that went away decades ago.

You had a popular collab with Chipotle where you dyed their merch with avocado pits. (So cool, BTW.) What are other foods we can dye with at home?
Avocado is a really great one. [You] save the pits, wash them, let them dry, then if you boil those down, it makes a wonderful muted pink… Onion skins are fun, and if you have a baggie of yellow ones and a baggie of red onion skins, they’re each going to make a slightly different color. Those are the big ones I often tell people, but there are also flowers. Dahlias make dye, so you can deadhead your garden and have dye readily available there, too.