INSPIRED. QUALITY. CREATIVITY. INNOVATION.

Motivations


There’s no question. The Oriole Mill founders Bethanne and Stephan are passionate about what they do. Bethanne’s enthusiasm for what they’re creating at The Mill translates into every product she designs. Stephan represents a quieter intensity, but is no less fervent about the goal of forging a paradigm shift in American textile manufacturing.

Everyone at The Oriole Mill is driven by quality – not only quality of the design of the product, and not only the quality of the finished product itself, but also quality of life at the mill. Both Bethanne and Stephan believe that the atmosphere people work in and how they are treated are reflected in the goods they produce. As a result, they have created an environment with a very different look and feel from what you traditionally think of when you hear “textile mill.” You can sense that passion and devotion in everything they create.

Innovative Design

Drawing on disparate inspirations, from rocks in a creek to a grandmother’s handmade lace, our original designs utilize the inherent characteristics and unique properties of natural fibers to capture and reflect the beauty around us. Whether you lay your head on one of our sumptuous pillows or display one in your master bedroom, it looks and feels both exquisite and comfortable.  You know it will last for generations.  

Heirloom Quality

Not so long ago, textiles were handed down from generation to generation just like any other treasured family possession. It’s in this spirit that The Oriole Mill produces heirloom quality fabrics and bedding, using only the highest-quality natural fiber yarn.

Natural Fibers

Snuggle up with a good book and one of our throws on a chilly evening and you’ll understand why The Oriole Mill only uses natural fibers like cotton, wool, silk, linen, alpaca and bamboo. It matters what you put next to your skin. Ultra soft, warm, and breathable, our fabrics are high quality but low impact – better for your body and our environment. No chemicals are used in weaving or finishing.

Click here to view our matelassé coverlets, made from a unique weave of cotton and wool.

American Made

Everything The Oriole Mill creates is designed, woven, cut and sewn at our location in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Step into the 72,000 square-foot facility and it is immediately clear this is not your typical manufacturing facility. It feels like a magnificent, oversized design studio – an inviting, open space full of windows and natural light.

Our production is more than local, it is face to face and hands-on, under one roof.  This immediacy has obvious benefits for efficiency, but that may not be its greatest feature.  The right hand can see what the left hand is doing.  Direct communication is omnipresent.
With every stage of making our products in one location, we can quickly improve the product or the process.  This is good for morale as well as for the end result.  Feedback is immediate, decisions are made and implemented quickly.  We have closed the common industrial gap between design and production, by doing it all in one place.

Decisions at The Oriole Mill are not made by taking surveys and analyzing data.  Decisions are made by the participants in the design and manufacturing process, together, based on their expertise.  In a sense we defy traditional American manufacturing.  We do not produce for “the market.”  We produce to our standards, to make available the very products we would want to own.

This is a new model of American manufacturing. Every item The Oriole Mill produces has a hand-touched feel – because the team literally touches every item at every step. This immersion in the details, quality and efficiency is the vision of creative director Bethanne Knudson.  Her emotional connection to the process is reflected in every thoughtfully-crafted Oriole Mill creation.  The physical arrangement does not just look like a design studio.  That is what it is, as much as it is a mill to produce the fabric, and a factory to produce the finished product.