Natural White has a color. That sounds obvious, but it's easy to think of white as the absence of a choice, especially next to a red or green pullover. Our undyed cotton has a warm white tone, and we like leaving that visible. The garment-dyed pieces take the same everyday wardrobe in a different direction.
The terms describe different things. Garment-dyed means the color is added after the fabric has become a garment. Undyed means the base fabric hasn't received a dye treatment. Neither term, on its own, tells you the whole fiber content or everything about how the finished piece was made.
Start with one shape
The kids pullovers make a useful comparison because you can keep the garment shape in mind while looking at the colors. The Natural White Pullover has an undyed base. Red, Green and Blue are garment-dyed choices.
We'd look at those next to the pants already getting worn. Red with denim is a very different outfit from warm white with a printed Studio Pant, although you're reaching for the same sort of layer. It can help to have an actual outfit in mind before getting happily distracted by all the colors.
The surface changes what you see
The Washed Black Adult Pullover has a garment-dyed, matte black finish. The Washed Black Short-Sleeve Bodysuit carries the same color name in baby rib. One is a French-terry crewneck; the other is a much smaller rib-knit garment. Their surfaces aren't identical, so we wouldn't treat a shared name as a promise of a perfect swatch match.
That doesn't get in the way of wearing them together. A shared dark color can connect the pieces, with the differences in texture making the outfit more interesting. The same goes for the Natural White Adult Pullover beside a child's undyed piece.
Undyed doesn't mean unprinted
Our Strawberry Tee begins with an undyed organic cotton base and gets its strawberry design screen printed in our San Francisco studio. The background and the image are separate parts of the finished tee.
You might pick up the red of the strawberry somewhere else, or let the warm cotton background sit beside a natural-white layer. It doesn't have to become a whole matching outfit. Our adult and child outfit guide has more ideas for sharing a color or motif while keeping the clothes each person actually likes to wear.
Keep the color, keep the routine simple
The adult Everyday Pullover calls for cold washing with like colors, low tumble or line drying, no bleach and a low iron if needed. Natural White is meant to be that warm undyed shade; brightening it to a different white isn't part of its care.
If you want to understand the cloth underneath the color, our French-terry guide looks at the looped knit. For choosing a color, though, you can keep it much simpler: put it beside a pair of pants you like and see whether you want to wear them together.
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