Eighteen colour names is too many to settle at eleven at night on a phone. Ash, Washed Black, Washed Navy, Washed Plum, Washed Grey, Lead Blue, Bottle Green, Indigo, Dull Sage, Cement, Dark Brown, Charcoal, Oat, Sky, Grass, Rhubarb and two camos — that’s the spread when you scroll the hoods at Butter Goods Australia, and most people go round it twice before landing on what they already own. Those names behave very differently once the thing is on you.
The Vexed Pullover Hood above is Ash, the pale mid-grey that turns up across most of the hood range (it also comes in Charcoal and Army). Ash is the shade people either buy straight away or quietly regret, and it comes down to lint, contrast and what’s already in your wardrobe.
A washed colour never reads completely flat
Half those names start with “washed”, and it isn’t just naming. A garment wash happens after the piece is sewn, so colour leaves the high points unevenly — the ridges on ribbed cuffs, the seam across the kangaroo pocket, the folded hood edge. You get a slightly broken surface, not one solid block of dye.
Which has a practical upside. Flat dyed fleece looks new for a couple of months, then tired, because every mark shows against even colour. Washed black has already been knocked about, so month fourteen looks much like month one. Washed Navy and Washed Grey do the same, and on heavyweight fleece with a brushed back that broken finish catches light across the sleeves.
Ash, Cement, Charcoal — the grey question
Three greys, three different jobs. Ash is pale and cool. Cement sits warmer and a touch browner, which is why it works next to Dark Brown and Oat. Charcoal is dark enough that people call it black from across the street, and honestly that’s its appeal.
Ash against black denim
This is the pairing that sells Ash, basically because a pale top over dark trousers is high contrast, and a chest print or logo applique on pale grey reads clearly instead of sinking into the fabric. A screen print on Ash is legible in a photo, while on Washed Black it wants decent light. So if you’re in black jeans most days, Ash is what stops the outfit going flat.
Where Ash will drive you a bit mad
Pale fleece collects things. A backpack strap leaves a dull line across the shoulder after a month of the train in, dark jumper fluff shows along the sleeve, dog hair is visible from across the room. That’s pale cotton, not a fault. You’ll own a clothes brush, or you’ll be fine with it looking lived in.
Most-shows to least:
- Oat, Ash and Sky show lint and shoulder-strap wear soonest
- Cement, Washed Grey and Dull Sage sit in the middle and hide a fair bit
- Washed Black, Charcoal, Indigo and Dark Brown hide everything except pale fluff
- the camos hide marks completely, since the pattern breaks up whatever lands on it
| Pro Tip: Screens lie about dark colours under a warm lamp at night — Washed Navy, Indigo and Lead Blue all squash into the same dark blue, and Cement comes out grey rather than warm. Thirty seconds by a window in daylight sorts it. |
Bottle Green and Indigo, or colour without wearing a colour
There’s a gap between black and actual colour, and that’s where Bottle Green, Indigo and Lead Blue live. From a distance all three read dark. Up close, they’re not. You get the shift without building an outfit around it, which is why Bottle Green on the Alloy Logo Pullover Hood and Indigo on the Tide Pullover Hood get worn more than people expect.
Rhubarb, Grass and Sky commit. A bright hood under a dark jacket on a grey July morning does something no amount of charcoal will, but those shades want the rest of the outfit quiet, and most of us don’t plan that far ahead. Washed Plum sits between the two camps — dusty enough to pass as a neutral, purple enough to notice.
If you’re buying one Butter Goods hood that has to work with everything, the order goes something like this, and the whole range sits on the one Butter Goods Hoodie page so you can see the colours side by side:
- start with your trousers — black denim pushes you to Ash or Indigo, faded blue denim to Bottle Green, Cement or Dark Brown
- then your jackets, because a pullover hood spends half its life underneath one
- then take the darker of your two favourites, since that’s the one you grab on a morning you haven’t thought about clothes
Camo, and the honest case for buying the boring one
Desert Camo on the Stars Waffle Zip-Thru Hood and Frog Camo on the Nail Logo Zip-Thru Hood behave differently to the plain shades. A camo is a pattern, so it stops being a background layer and becomes the loudest thing on you. Everything else then stands down — plain trousers, plain tee, nothing else patterned. Worn that way they look great. Next to a printed tee they fight.
So camo is a second hood, not a first one. Same with Grass and Rhubarb. And here’s the unglamorous argument: the Washed Black or Charcoal pullover gets worn fifty times a year. Over a tee in a Sydney southerly, under a coat on a Canberra morning at 4 °C, to the shops. Nobody photographs it. It’s also the one you replace first, because you wore it out.
At A$90 to A$99, with sizing from S to 4XL, there’s little penalty in buying the sensible colour first and the interesting one second. Most people go the other way, then wonder why the fun one still has tags on in March. The skate-rooted side of Butter Goods leans muted anyway.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which hood colour shows marks and lint the most?
Oat and Ash, then Sky. Pale cotton picks up fluff from darker clothes and shows the dull line a bag strap leaves. It brushes off, but you’ll be doing that.
Is Washed Black actually black?
Not quite. It’s a black that’s been garment washed, so the seams and cuff ribs sit slightly lighter. Next to a flat new black it reads faded. On its own it just looks worn in, which is the point.
Will Ash look grubby next to black denim?
No, that’s its best pairing — the contrast is what makes a chest print or embroidery readable. Grubby comes from lint and strap wear, not denim.
Bottle Green or Indigo — which one goes with more?
Indigo, narrowly, because it behaves like navy and nobody has to think about it. Bottle Green is the better-looking shade and sits beautifully against brown or Oat, but it clashes with mid-blue denim.
Does the colour change how I should wash it?
Not really, though a hot machine shows up fastest on the darker washed shades. Keep it cool, air dry it, and a washed colour mostly holds where it is.
Colour is the thing people spend the longest on and regret most, usually because they picked the exciting one while sitting still instead of the one they’d grab at 7 am. Think about your trousers, your jackets, how much lint you can live with — then have a proper daylight look at the Butter Goods hood colours before you order.
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