Even if you don’t know about it, many small clothing lines are, by necessity, scavengers or recyclers. The little guys often end up buying big companies’ leftovers. Case in point: These buttons, soon to appear in the FW10 collection, are part of an unused lot once made for Eddie Bauer. We spent about two hours trying to figure out the button situation before these showed up. Decision made.

Sorry for the lack of posts, but between the holiday and getting the AW10 collection ready, there’s little time to do anything besides TCOB (in Bodkin office parlance). One of the many time-consuming tasks is preparing all of the shibori-dyed T-shirts and bustiers for spring production (in stores soon!). This is no ordinary tie-dye. Each top is cut from 2 or 3 large panels of fabric. Each panel must be painstakingly measured and pleated, then hand-stitched using dental floss, which is then pulled tight enough to cause guitarist-grade calluses. We’ve all been chipping in on nights and weekends, and it’s almost time for the 80-odd pieces to take their bath in blue. Here is Willie—our new intern, and a brilliant textile artist in his own right—needling around at the studio.

These...

...become these.