In the fall of 2023, Sally Fox wrote to me about two fabrics woven in Japan from her cotton that were available. Out of this note came our first opportunity to really begin working together; a small run of pants and shirts presented as part of an exhibition in New York. For me, it was a full circle moment, coming a decade after being introduced to Sally and her life’s work - fifty years of extreme dedication to researching, breeding, farming, and pioneering organically grown, naturally colored cotton. After the exhibition, I found myself re-energized to hunt down Sally’s cotton and see if I could finally find substantial, long term ways of working with it. 

The hope in the back of my mind that I could incorporate her work into my own hasn’t always had a clear path forward. It took around 8 years to piece together answers to my early questions. Was Sally’s cotton being grown still? Where was it being spun? Who was weaving with it? It was clear that it all tied back to the decline in American fiber processing, yarn spinning and weaving industry. While working on this piece with friend and writer Noah Johnson last year, we got to know just how inextricable the crash of the American garment and textile industry was from Sally’s path, and ultimately how much it informs my own.

Visiting Taishoboseki helped me uncover ways to highlight Sally’s work in a lasting way - this month we introduced the made in Japan socks after a few years of development, in the current editions multiple styles have been cut from a lightweight canvas, we found deadstock rolls of narrow shuttle loom selvedge denim to make another run of the orSlow collaboration jean, and we’re now working on a custom cloth for the Permanent collection. All of these projects come together with yarn spun by Taishoboseki.