Kathryn Bentley

Dream Collective is dazzled to announce the debut of a limited-edition "Peek-a-Boo" EVIL EYE cuff for Of a Kind. OAK selects on-the-rise designers whose work they love, to be featured (one at a time) while offering a limited-edition piece designed exclusively for the site. Here it is... 

OAK is generous in sharing stories about each designer - inspiration, taste, personal life, training, process, you name it - as well as temporarily handing over their Instagram password to the "it" designer for a week-long romp with their many followers. This is actually our second OAK solo in the spotlight, our first lucky star being the SUNSET WAVE cuff. 

JM Dry Goods, Mexican-influenced boutique in Austin, is taking their goods on the road and heading straight to the Dream Collective flagship store in Silver Lake for a month-long pop-up shop... 

We're making room on our shelves for the Saturday, December 1st arrival of JM Dry Goods, as they'll be parking a truckload of treasures handpicked in Oaxaca and Merida... 

For the entire month of December, we will offer precious and handmade textiles, rugs, pillows, huipiles, ponchos, hammock string necklaces, copal incense, rebozos, mercado hats, maguey woven bags, sashes, scented wood jewelry boxes, hammocks and more... Please join us!

We recently visited textile artisan Niki Livingston of Lookout & Wonderland in her downtown L.A. studio, to learn about the ancient art of organic dye using the Indigo plant. 

Niki was first inspired to take up Indigo dyeing on holiday in Japan, when she discovered an older woman selling beautiful "boro" (which translates to trash - Indigo dye has a reputation rooted in "peasant" attire) in a Kyoto marketplace.

With a few years of detective work and a little help from an Indigo master, Niki cultivated her own dynamic style of dyeing while still honoring traditional Shibori Itajime or Japanese resist dye techniques. 

During our visit, we gave Niki a couple of our favorite white linen dresses by Perfect 69 for a dip in the vat and witnessed the magic alchemy of Indigo dye in action. (We're planning to sell a few of Niki's Indigo dyed "69" dresses for the holiday season as a limited collaboration!)

Niki walked us through the process dyeing while we chatted about the history of the plant, which produces one of the oldest dyes used for textiles and printing. 

In the vat, the indigo brew is a bubbly, boiling, muddy potion of witchy green and sea blue. Something about it feels mystical, reminding us that Indigo is the color symbolizing the crown chakra - or the third eye. 

You can purchase Niki's handwoven Indigo dipped creations at Dream Collective... and contact us if you would like to attend one of Niki's upcoming indigo dye workshops. 

Hot Summer days in L.A. make me feel like I'm floating down the Nile on a slow-moving barge. If I had to adorn myself for an Egyptian journey, I'd wear Kathryn Bentley's eternity snake bangle, a bracelet featuring a mystical 14K gold serpent with black diamond eyes that looks like it popped straight out of Cleopatra's jewel box. This is not just any ol' bangle, featuring the powerful Ouroboros - one of the most important ancient symbols of religion and mythology. It looks like a serpent eating its own tail, which represents something constantly re-creating itself. The beginning and the end of time. The eternal return. This snake has made some rad appearances throughout history - first in the ancient Egyptian text of Tutankhamun's tomb, then frequently on magical talismans in Roman times. It's also in symbolic harmony with the Yin-Yang, representing the eternal unity of all things. Walk like an Egyptian into Dream Collective and see this symbolic piece in person. Summer Love, Lizzie Brandt

Please join us Saturday, August 4th from 12 - 5 pm

1404 Micheltorena St. LA, CA 90026