The Atelier Service

Yes, we will make a piece in a colour that exists once. You write to us, we talk about the colour you are holding in your head, we dye a small sample and send you a photograph of it in daylight, and if it is right we make the piece. It takes three to four months. The colour will never be repeated, and no other woman will own it.

That is the short version. The rest of this page is the honest version, including what plants refuse to do.

What the atelier service actually is

It is not a configurator. There is no drop down menu of colours, no upload your swatch button, no instant quote.

It is a conversation with the two of us and with the woman who will dye the cloth. She works with plants, in Bali, in a courtyard, over several days. What she can give you depends on the plant, the water, the fibre and the weather that week. Nobody involved can promise you a colour before it has been in the pot.

So we work the other way around. You tell us the feeling. Not the hex code, the feeling. The colour of the sea at the place you are going. The green of the tree outside the house you grew up in. The particular gold of the light at five in the afternoon. We take that to the dye house, and we send you back what the plants offer.

What botanical dye can and cannot do

Most brands offering custom colour are working with synthetic dye, which can hit any number on a chart on the first attempt. We are not, and that difference is the whole point, so it should be stated plainly rather than discovered later.

One more honest note. Plant colour lives. It shifts gently with sunlight and washing over years, the way a linen sheet or a good rug does. If you want a colour frozen exactly as it arrived, we are the wrong makers for that piece.

How a one of a kind piece is made

Plan for three to four months. If your date is inside that, write to us anyway. We will tell you honestly whether it can be done, and quite often the better answer is a stock piece in an existing botanical colourway, which we will say without trying to sell you the longer route.

How we know nobody else has it

This is the question we are asked most often by the women who order this way, and it is usually asked slightly apologetically, as though it were vanity. It is not vanity. You are spending real money on something for a night that matters, and arriving to find two other women in the same dress is a specific and avoidable kind of deflation.

So, mechanically, here is how it is prevented.

A custom colourway is dyed in a single batch, sized to your piece and nothing more. When the pot is finished, that colour is finished. We do not keep the recipe on a shelf to run again, because with plants there is no recipe to keep. The same leaves, the same water and the same hands produce a different result in November than they did in June.

We also do not resell a custom colourway as a style. It does not go into a collection, it does not become a limited run, and it does not reappear on the site in your size six months later.

Even our standing colourways behave this way to a degree. Our signature Rainbeau is never identical between batches, which is why two women in the same Rainbeau piece are still not in the same piece. The Mahashivrati Kuan Yin Playsuit and the Virgo Rising Royal Once In A Blue Moon came out of the pot the way they came out of the pot, and the next ones will not match them exactly.

What else the atelier will change

Colour is the request we get most, but it is not the only one.

Length. Hem and sleeve are the simplest changes we make and the ones that transform how a piece sits on a specific body. Worth asking for even if you want nothing else.

Measurements. Since everything is sewn after you order, cutting to your measurements is a smaller change than most people assume. Send us numbers and we will tell you what is possible on that style.

Fabric. A style that lives in linen can sometimes be made in silk, or the reverse. Sometimes it cannot, because the cut depends on the weight of the cloth. We will tell you which it is.

A piece that no longer exists. If you have seen something in an old photograph, ask. Sometimes the pattern is still with the tailor who cut it.

What we will not do is copy another designer's garment. If you send us someone else's dress and ask us to remake it, the answer is no, kindly, every time.

Where to start if you are new to this

You do not have to begin with a commission. Most women who order this way began by owning one piece and wanting the next one to be theirs alone.

Start with something already dyed by hand and see how the colour behaves in your own light. The Silk Virgo Kaftan is botanically rose dyed. The Kuan Yin Silk Playsuit in Turmeric Gold shows what roots do to silk. The Ramie Botanical Origami Gown and the Venus Rose Gown are both plant coloured at full length.

If you already know, write to support@myrahpenaloza.com with the occasion, the date, and the colour you are holding in your head. Mayra reads these herself.

Frequently asked questions

Can I order a piece in a custom colour?

Yes. Write to us with the occasion, the date and the colour you have in mind. We dye a sample of the actual cloth, photograph it in daylight and send it to you before making anything. Plan for three to four months from first email to delivery.

What is botanical dyeing?

Colour taken from plants rather than from petrochemicals. Roots, leaves, bark, flowers and indigo, worked in water over several days. The dyeing alone takes five to seven days before a garment is cut, and the result is never exactly repeatable, which is why no two batches match.

Will anyone else have the same piece?

No. A custom colourway is dyed in one batch, sized to your garment only. When that pot is finished the colour is finished, and it is never released as a style, added to a collection or run again. With plant dye there is no recipe to repeat even if we wanted to.

Can you match an exact colour or a printed swatch?

Not exactly, and we will not pretend otherwise. Plants give a range rather than a number. Indigos, golds, roses, clays and neutrals are reliable. Greens are slower. True black is very difficult without synthetic dye, and neon is impossible. We tell you where your colour sits before you commit.

How long does a custom colourway take?

Three to four months. Roughly two to three weeks for the sample, one to two weeks to dye the full length, two to four weeks to cut and sew, and one to two weeks in transit. If your date is sooner, ask us anyway and we will tell you honestly.

Can I change the length or have it cut to my measurements?

Yes. Hem and sleeve length are the simplest changes we make. Custom measurements are also possible on most styles, since every piece is sewn after you order. Send your measurements and we will tell you what works on that particular cut.

Are custom and made to order pieces returnable?

No. A piece cut to your measurements or dyed in a colour made for you cannot belong to anyone else, so it is final sale. We would rather say that plainly at the start than surprise you at the end. The full position is in returns and exchanges, explained.

How much does a custom piece cost?

It depends on the style, the fabric and how much dyeing the colour needs, so it is quoted rather than listed. We give you the number before any work begins, and there is no charge for the conversation or for asking whether something is possible.

Why we do it this way

We could make custom colour faster and cheaper. Synthetic dye would hit any number you sent us, on the first attempt, in an afternoon.

But your skin is the body's largest organ, and we will never build a garment out of petrochemical fiber, not for cost, not for convenience, not for any reason. The same holds for what we put into the cloth. You can read the whole account, including what we do not yet have, on our slow fashion page.

What you get in exchange for the wait is a garment that exists once, made by a woman whose name we know, in a colour that came out of a plant in a courtyard in Bali on one particular week and will not come again.

That seems worth three months.

If you want the wider picture first, what made to order actually means covers how everything here is produced, and what to wear for a milestone birthday abroad is where most of these conversations begin.

With love from Bali,
Myrah