Our MATERIALS
Fabrics you want to keep touching
Allow us to nerd out on the stories, origins, and makers behind our magnificent materials
The materials with which we fill our lives matter.
At NAOMI NOMI, we source our fabrics from mills that have been operating and innovating,
some for centuries, weaving and finishing spectacular fabrics that breath,
move and feel like the luxurious natural resources that they are.
We love cottons,
linens, silks, & wools;
the foundation of a biodiverse closet.
Read below for some of the stories, origins, & makers behind our magnificent materials.
meet our
Merino Wool
The softest and strongest fabric on the block.From Sheep to Shirt
Naturally wrinkle resistant, merino wool absorbs the odor from your sweat and releases it only when washed. That means it doesn't need to be washed after every wear. That's great news because the majority of a garment's impact on our environment comes, surprisingly, not from its production, but from its time spent in a washing machine and dryer.
Who We Work With
Post haircut, our wool is spun into yarn and then woven into cloth at our partner mill in Bavaria, Germany. In the biz for over 350 years, this mill is the oldest cloth manufacturer in Germany, and incidentally the 29th oldest industrial enterprise of any kind in Germany. The Mill has been family-owned for 10 generations.
Every season, we work directly with their team to dye our new hues. After the wool is dyed, it's spun into yarn and wound onto gigantic spools. Then, the Germans weave. Once finished, the gorgeous fabric is sent to New York to be cut and sewn into the perfect NAOMI NOMI New Oxford just for you. Strong, soft, and timeless.
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Merino Edit
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Hemp Denim
This controversial plant that has been causing conversation for centuries.From Stem to Stitch
Hemp is a miraculous plant (and not just in the *coughcough* way you might think). Hemp is incredibly lightweight, durable, long-lasting, and sustainable. Actually in terms of being low impact, it's second only to our wool.
Need proof? Allow us to get down to brass tacks:
Hemp has the power to: yield up to 1300lb of fiber/acre (double the amount of cotton and 160% more than linen), grow prosperously sans pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, use 70% less water per season as irrigated cotton, be harvested within 100 days of being planted, and grow for up to 20 years straight in the same location without need for crop rotation or soil replenishment.
meet our
Organic Cotton
A white cotton shirt to your wardrobe is like the flour to your pantry or a tampon in your purse.You know you’ll always need it.
From Field to Fabric
The cotton plant starts as a flower and then matures into a beautiful ball of fluff, which is gathered and then spun into the soft fabric we love. The term cotton refers to the soft fibers inside the hard encased plant. Picked by hand for centuries, the biggest innovations in cotton came in the 13th century in India with the first cotton gin and then the 19th century in the U.S. with the mechanical cotton gin. The mechanical cotton gin alone cut the amount of time it took to separate the cotton fluff from the plant down to 12 hours from 600 hours.
Is our cotton organic?
Indeed! Our cotton hails from Turkey and is constructed in a traditional double-faced Oxford basketweave that gives it that intricately subtle checkerboard texture.
When selecting our cotton, we wanted a weight that was strong enough to be thrown around yet billowy enough to feel effortless.
Back in the 19th century, a guy who owned a Scottish textile mill had a brilliant idea for a marketing campaign: name the season’s fabrics after all the fancy universities. All the rich boys who go to these schools will want them and they will all sell - cue happily ever after.
Well, it kind of worked! No one really liked the Cambridge, Harvard and Yale weaves, but the Oxford — now that was a hit. Known for its yarn’s criss-crossing basket weave, Oxford cloth became a mainstay of the closets of British polo players (it was breathable and the closest thing they had to sportswear). Eventually, Oxford became the name of the shirt itself, too.
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Cotton Edit
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From Cocoon to Cloth
Once the thread is produced, it’s woven into a twill formation which gives our fabric its glorious movement.
Who We Work With
With its long, tightly woven fibers, silk can actually regulate your body temperature and keeps you toasty, hot, steamy, and sexy.
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Cotton Flannel
Warm, fluffy, and with bedding-level softness, it's the material you'll reach for from autumn to spring.From Fiber to Finish
Covered in the excess fabric scraps from the making of the shirt, even the buttons are lusciously soft to the touch.
meet our
Weighted Linen
When we die, bury us in linen like Egypt's ancient mummies.From Ground to Garment
First, it’s harvested through pulling rather than cutting to get the longest fibers possible. Next, the harvested plant must be stooked, which is the process of tying the flax linen together, and then it’s left out to dry standing in bundles called, “beats.” Once dry, the seeds are removed from the flax in a combing-like process called scutching. Only then, when the plant stock has been separated from the fibers, are we able to spin the yarn.
Woven in Ireland from flax grown in France and Belgium, our new weighted summer linen is soft against the skin, textured to the touch, and oh-so breathable. Because of its porous nature, linen is naturally moisture-wicking, keeping you dry all day long.
Like wearing your favorite summer blanket
Because our linen is 100% natural, yeah, it wrinkles, and yeah we love that!
Remember, “wrinkle free” linen is code for “chemically treated” linen. The folds are beautiful - soft landscapes that gather near the hem. Toss it on the floor and pick it up the next day - gravity will do the rest. Like all of our clothes, they’re meant to be worn, not hung for display.
OK, one more fun fact:
meet our
Lyocell Twill
Sometimes, you fall in love and you let that love, make all the decisions.That's why we use lyocell.
From Tree to Twill
This closed-loop production process takes the material from the forest, to wood chips, to pulp, to fiber, to yarn, to fabric, all the way back to NAOMI NOMI’s studio. When we touched it, we fell in love. Now it’s your turn.
Can’t Stop Touching it
Why eucalyptus trees? Because they grow super fast, without irrigation, or any need for pesticides. Plus, as a biodegradable fabric, 99.5% of the dissolving agent can be used repeatedly.
Lyocell's production has the potential to use less than half as much water as cotton.
Plus, when made it into a garment, lyocell has the ability to absorb up to 20% of its own weight in moisture, it is incredibly breathable
i.e., no need to wash after every wear.
We get it.
Let us send you a swatch!
(yes, for free)