Tolaga Bay Cashmere: Creating Garments at the Edge of the Pacific

It’s hard to imagine a more out-of-the-way place than Tolaga Bay, or one more ruggedly beautiful. Located on the windswept eastern shore of New Zealand’s North Island, the area is surrounded by emeraldgreen hills, blanched sandstone cliffs, and a crystalclear view of the vast expanse of the southern Pacific Ocean.

It’s not exactly the kind of place you’d expect to find a cashmere operation. Yet the region has a long history of both fashion and fibre-making. For centuries, Indigenous Māori weavers harvested the sword-like leaves of the native harakeke (New Zealand flax), weaving them into intricately dyed garments that symbolised social status and ancestral connection. In the colonial era, these fibres were exported globally for rope and sailcloth well into the 1950s. Today, the area is home to the Tolaga Bay Cashmere Company, producer of some of the most storied cashmere garments in the world.