A NATURAL ALIGNMENT LILYA x JKB COLLAB

For years, Jess Bergeron has been part of the LILYA community. A herbalist, educator, recipe developer, homeschooler and mother of four, Jess lives with her family on Kauaʻi, Hawaii, where so much of everyday life happens outdoors, in the garden, at the beach and around the kitchen table.

Through JKB Journal, Jess shares her knowledge of kitchen herbalism and encourages women to reconnect with plants, traditional knowledge and the simple practice of making things for themselves.

Now, those two worlds have come together in JKB x LILYA - a small collection inspired by the herbs Jess grows, teaches and works with, translated into clothes designed for everyday life. Jess's relationship with plants began long before she studied them formally. Her interest in plants eventually led her to study ethnobotany and traditional medicine at the University of Hawaii, and over the past twenty years, herbalism has become part of the way she cares for herself and her family.

Today, much of that work still happens at home. “I live with my family on Kauai, Hawaii, where so much of our life happens outside - at the beach, in the garden and around our kitchen table. We grow medicinal and culinary herbs on our land, and my kitchen is almost always filled with jars of infusing herbs, something steeping on the counter, bread being made, kids coming and going, and whatever medicine I happen to be working on that day.”

For Jess, kitchen herbalism isn't about becoming an expert in hundreds of plants. It's about knowing a handful of herbs well and understanding how they can become part of everyday family life.

“It’s tea steeping on the counter, calendula oil in the cupboard, elderberry syrup in the refrigerator and a salve you made yourself. It is practical, beautiful, old-fashioned knowledge that becomes part of everyday family life.”

Why Kitchen Herbalism Matters

Jess's philosophy is simple: bring some of this knowledge back into our homes. In a world where so much is ready-made and information is always at our fingertips, she believes there is something valuable in learning through doing - growing herbs, cooking from scratch and making simple herbal preparations. For Jess, it's about making herbalism practical and part of everyday family life.

How JKB x LILYA Came Together

Jess has been a longtime LILYA customer, and over the years, Lisa and Jess built a relationship based on mutual respect, a connection to Hawaii, and motherhood and it’s from there, the idea of working together slowly evolved.

Jess already loved the way LILYA clothes fitted into her life, while Lisa has always admired Jess's knowledge of plants and the way she shares it with her family and community. Together, they developed some of Jess's favourite LILYA styles and reworked them with details that felt personal to Jess - from the vintage-inspired buttons and embroidered botanicals on the denim to the exclusive yarrow print.

Three herbs became the starting point: echinacea, yarrow and chamomile. Echinacea and chamomile were translated into delicate embroidered details, while yarrow became an exclusive botanical print across a collection of relaxed, feminine pieces. The collection also extends to a small selection of children's styles, inspired by Jess's life as a mother of four.

“Botanicals that are actually part of my life, printed onto clothes that are actually made to be lived in.”

Earthy, nostalgic and softly retro, this collection brings together natural fibres, lived-in textures and a subtle sense of nostalgia. Inspired by gardens, herbs, denim and workwear, the pieces are made for women who value comfort, practicality and a little femininity in their everyday lives. Feminine but unfussy, they’re designed to feel familiar from the first wear and become part of the life you already live.

The Herbs & What They Mean to Jess

Echinacea

“Echinacea feels like such a strong, beautiful plant to me. I love growing it because it has this incredible presence in the garden — the flowers are striking, the pollinators adore them, and beneath the soil is this beautiful root that herbalists have valued for generations. It’s one of those plants that reminds me that a garden can be both incredibly beautiful and incredibly useful.”

Yarrow

“Yarrow is one of my forever herbs. Achillea millefolium is a plant I have worked with for years and one that I believe belongs in every home herbalist's apothecary. I love its feathery leaves, its resilience and the long history of people keeping it close as a practical household herb. There is something almost perfectly symbolic about yarrow — it looks delicate, but it is incredibly hardy.” “And I especially love seeing it translated into Yarrow Yellow for this collection. It feels so sunny and earthy at the same time.”

Chamomile

“Chamomile might be one of the best examples of why I love kitchen herbalism. It is gentle, familiar and incredibly versatile. It's a plant I’ve used throughout motherhood and family life in so many different ways, and there is almost always chamomile somewhere in my kitchen.” “I also love the contradiction in the plant itself — these tiny, sweet little flowers that look so delicate but are actually wonderfully useful. Chamomile feels like comfort to me.”

The connection between Jess and LILYA goes beyond the botanical details. She has always been drawn to clothes that work around her life rather than the other way around. White jeans were a part of the collection Lisa developed for Jess, but she said she could never wear them in the garden and that made perfect sense.

“I love clothing that is beautiful but doesn't feel precious — pieces I can actually live my life in. I can throw on a LILYA dress in the morning, walk through the garden, teach from my kitchen, pile into the car with four kids, go to the beach, and still feel feminine and put together.”
That ease is something she has always loved about LILYA.

“The fabrics, the prints, the movement of the pieces — it feels relaxed and feminine without trying too hard, which is very much how I want to dress and live.”

For the collection shoot, Jess photographed the pieces at home in Kauaʻi with two of her four children, Fern and Wren. Rather than creating a traditional fashion shoot, the idea was simply to photograph the collection where Jess would actually wear these pieces, wandering through the garden, working in the kitchen, spending time with her family and getting on with a normal day at home.

“I want women to see the clothes being lived in, not simply modelled.”

And that is exactly what these beautiful images capture. The clothes worn in the places and moments they were made for.

We’ve loved creating this collection with Jess. She was such a joy to work with, and it’s been really special to see her ideas, her love of plants and her personal style come together with LILYA.

We hope you love wearing it as much as we’ve loved creating it.

To get a little glimpse into Jess’s world and herbal remedies, you can follow her on Instagram at @jkbjournal