Sacramento News & Review Recognizes Huston Textile Co.

Last month, local news outlet Sacramento News & Review featured our very own Huston Textile Co. on their weekly cover. Writer and self-professed seamstress Rebecca Huval provides the back story and describes Huston’s current operations to reveal the immense value and charm of “[this] little known textile company producing some of the only selvage fabric made in the U.S.”

From the sweatshops in Bangladesh and in the Philippines to the now defunct California Cotton Mills in Oakland, Huval brings us up to date in California. She notes that “in the unlikeliest of turns, they’re revving to life…looms that are producing cotton and wool fabric, even denim, in Sacramento County.” She’s talking, of course, about Huston Textiles, where owner Ryan Huston restores vintage looms at his Mather warehouse. There, Huston uses California wool and West Texas cotton to manufacture canvas, cotton duck, chambray, wool-and-cotton blends and denim. The result, Huval adds, is a tightly woven fabric that is both soft and durable—an unmatched level of integrity that modern technology simply can’t reproduce.

More than just quality fabric, Huston’s operation hinges on the rejection of “fast fashion,” which Huval notes is “cited as one of the world’s largest sources of pollution because of harsh chemical dyes, the pesticides required to grow conventional cotton and the petroleum needed to make polyester.” Huston says he’s in the textile business to address these very problems—he sources carbon “draw-down” wool from Lani’s Lana in Eagleville, California and organic cotton from Texas. He adds that for all the progress Sacramento has made in becoming America’s “farm-to-fork” capital, the concept hasn’t translated to our clothing. Of course, Huston hopes to change that, starting right here in Sacramento.

To support Huston’s growing business, be sure to check out their Kickstarter campaign here. Read Huston’s Sacramento News & Review cover story here.