Janet and Abby of Orient Linen Co. are some of our favorite people to be around. This mother-daughter team has incredible energy, taste, and entrepreneurial industriousness. They also have incredible style! Together they run one of the most beautiful shops in Long Island's North Fork region. Their store carries house-made quilts, aprons, and other home textiles, in addition to goods ranging from Japanese toolboxes, leather flyswatters, Italian toothpaste, and other beautiful items from all over the world. We might be biased, but how could we not love a linen-focused home shop?
Orient Linen Co. has been around since Janet founded it in the 2000s, but the two began working together during Covid. Since then, the business has expanded physically, into a robust online business, and supplies shops all over Long Island with custom branded bags, aprons, and other goods.
We are so thrilled they agreed to model our SS25 capsule. We thought y'all would love to get to know them better as well, so asked them a few questions about their business and life on the North Fork. Q&A below!
1) Tell us about the start of Orient Linen Co.
Janet: When our young family moved to China two decades ago, I found myself as an expat wife having worked for years in the textile world. I needed something to do and I had just bought a house in Orient with an empty store, which was previously the Orient barbershop. I saw that as an opportunity to produce textiles and home furnishings in China and bring them back to Orient.
2) When did you start working together on this?
Abby: Over the years, Mom developed a really consistent local following. Orient Linen Co. was just sort of part of our life. If Mom was home on a summer day baking a pie or working in the garden, she’d open the shop door, which she could mind from the kitchen, porch or garden, and people would stop in to chat or look around. In more recent years, I’d open it up occasionally and make some potholders or napkins. It started to feel like customers wanted more and we wanted to spend more and more time working with textiles and just being in the shop, so three years ago as COVID lockdowns ended and I was called back to office, I decided to stay and see what could happen.
3) Abby, would you mind sharing more about that turning point when you decided to quit your job and devote yourself fully to Orient Linen Co.?
Abby: I worked for nearly a decade in daily news. First, I worked overnight producing the CBS morning national news at the NYC broadcast center, and then I left to help launch a political video company called The Recount. I had always wanted to work in news and love writing, fast paced working environments and the entrepreneurial spirit of a newsroom, but news really started to take it’s toll and especially during COVID I got pretty burnt out. The company I was working for was nearing a point of sale and I was facing another Trump Biden election and I just didn’t know if I had the energy for the 24 hour election cycle. Just before my 30th birthday I decided that my urge to take on Orient Linen Co. was something I’d probably regret not giving a try, so I quit my job and am grateful to have lasted 3 years! I kept my apartment in the city for a whole year while living with my mom in Orient because I was so concerned about having a backup plan. It feels really good to feel a sense of success at this point in our small goal of just getting it off the ground.
4) What's your favorite part about working together?
Abby: I have reached a much deeper appreciation for my mother by connecting with her through textiles and really getting a chance to experience her deep knowledge and passion. At the core of Orient Linen Co. is her really fabulous, cool and clear point of view, and I believe that more than ever having gotten the chance to sort of examine what it is that Orient Linen Co. is. It was also really important for me to get the chance to delve a little deeper in fiber arts, which I’m so grateful for. When I quit my job to pursue Orient Linen Co., the minimum I wanted from the experience was to just get a chance to work with my hands and reconnect fiber arts, something my mother and I did together growing up but had less and less time to do once I started working right out of college.
Janet: And now we have a lot of shared friendships, which is really nice.
Abby: Yes! We have so many shared friends through the store. It really does feel like there’s a broader Orient Linen Co. community.
5) What are some of the challenges of working together?
Janet: We don’t agree on everything.
Abby: We don’t agree on anything! Just kidding … where to start? Neither of us has a real passion for numbers and the business side of Orient Linen Co., so that’s been tough. It can also just be hard to work with family, of course. Orient Linen Co. feels very emotional because it’s not just a business, it’s a real part of our lives. A lot of the decisions we make about the business and our lives are very intertwined. For example, as Orient Linen Co. expanded, Mom’s house sort of started to cave in on her space-wise. Largely, I feel a lot of pressure to, for lack of better words, not ruin the beautiful thing my mom created! For the business to be sustainable, we have to find ways to grow without sacrificing quality and spirit. There are so many directions we feel we can go in and so many decisions to make and at the same time we’re sewing a lot of the products ourselves and managing the shop 5 days a week while managing several wholesale accounts. It’s just the two of us and Mom still has a full time job in real estate so both of us oftentimes feel pretty spread thin.
6) How has Orient Linen Co changed over the years?
Abby: It’s changed a lot! It used to be mostly a small offering of handmade linens, but we’ve added a lot of gift items and we now have curated a broad line of homewares that we don’t make ourselves. It was also never really open before. I think Orient Linen Co. has become a lot more fun and has a broader following because we have a little more for everyone. We have a lot more men’s items and stuff for kids, not just babies. I also launched an online presence, both for online shopping and social media, which has allowed us to connect with more people and stay connected with one-time visitors. We now have a pretty quickly growing wholesale arm, which has been a really fun way to collaborate with other businesses and friends.
Janet: We’ve listened to our customers. A lot of ideas come from our customers. So we’ve expanded the baby and other items, to meet demand.
7) What are some of the other businesses that inspire you?
Abby: Blluemade! It’s been so inspiring having you and Alex to chat with and to just have the support of other linen founders. You source a lot of inspiration from your daily life, which gives me a lot of confidence to sort of “trust in the vision” and my gut. I also like that you encourage me to use high-quality where I sometimes feel pressure to use cheaper alternatives. Your nylon shorts are so simple, but people point them out to me all the time. It really reminds me that you don’t need flashy branding, just good quality and design and people will notice.
We love The Shopkeepers Instagram and website. Paula, who started the account, is a friend of ours and she has created this beautiful, essentially library of small shops all around the world. It’s a treasure trove and truly inspiring to be able to see what others are doing. It’s really an incredible archive
We get a lot of inspiration from utility shops like hardware stores and old general stores. We love the straightforward simplicity of something that’s not too self aware. A lot of our materials are made for utility, not just for linens and textiles.
8) What is an aspect of running Orient Linen Co that might surprise people?
Abby: It’s harder than it looks! Someone came in the shop one time and said, “Wow, your life is so dreamy!” It made me laugh because at the time I was feeling pretty cramped in my high school bedroom, going through a pretty uncertain career change, sharing my mom’s car and dealing with problems like having to strap 200 aprons because our first factory order of aprons for wholesale came back with no straps. I feel immensely grateful for this opportunity, it just also requires hours and hours of sewing wholesale orders, breaking down boxes, packaging each e-commerce order, etc. I’ve had to wear a neck brace a few times because of excessive bending over the sewing machine and ironing board.
I think curating the shop is also a little more complicated than it might seem. My mom always says, “we can’t be everything to everyone,” which I’ve found to be a really helpful reminder not to try to stock everything but to stay true to our point of view and aesthetic. A product may be really great, but does it actually make sense in the OLC milieu? Maybe not always and it’s important to us to stay true to the original vision.
9) What do you like to wear when you're working?
Abby: I LOVE my Blluemade nylon shorts!! They are SO soft and the perfect piece of clothing for me while I’m in the shop; really beautiful and stylish while also sneakily comfortable and utilitarian. You can really “dress them up dress them down.” I think I imagined myself wearing beautiful cottage core dresses while running the shop, but the reality is that I just want to wear durable and functional clothing that can work for me while I’m crawling underneath various sewing machines to fix them, running up to the barn to re-stock items, unpacking boxes, etc.
I think the other thing that Mom and I realized is that we actually just like to wear more unisex clothing. The Blluemade linen hat is also so unique and a really cool piece, which we carry at the shop. It’s not always easy to find a piece of clothing, especially a hat, that doesn’t feel like it’s just been done before and this really gets beyond that. We’re also really leaning into the Blluemade linen jersey tees. They have the perfect drape and are so soft. Mom and I don’t really have much difference in our “day to night” clothing - it’s sort of all the same for us and I love that this shirt really fits with that. Right now it’s really mostly Blluemade and the usual functional workwear, both vintage and modern. I love something that looks better with age, clothing should have a character of its own! We also wear tons and tons of vintage denim chore coats.
10) Give us a typical day in the life of Orient Linen Co... if such a thing exists.
Abby: Oh wow. It’s usually a mad dash. Mom is usually running around to various real estate appointments and open houses while popping in to help me with custom orders here and there. She still hand sews every embroidery onto each quilt or item. She’s a powerhouse, it’s sort of unbelievable. I open the shop five days per week from 10 AM -5 PM, so I’m there all day usually trying to keep up with our wholesale, customer and e-commerce orders. I try to take off on Tuesday and Wednesday, but either end up in Orient finishing sewing projects or doing all of the invoicing, website and communications work that doesn’t really have a ton of space in our typical shop day. It’s always sort of a flow of people coming in and out of the shop so I’m usually just in that flow.
11) What are some of your most tried and true items at the shop?
Abby: Our baby quilt is one of our most popular items. It’s just really special and useful - it’s machine washable and just hits the nail on the head in terms of a cotton, breathable, modern but classic ivory quilt. We also have it in Twin, Queen and King and people just love it. There are some houses in Orient that have them and the renters always come in looking for their own. Our classic ticking apron is another one that we’ve sold without changing for what must be close to the lifetime of the shop. It’s a utility fabric and you can wash it a million times. Our new linen bedding has also taken off - it’s sort of the classic OLC product…a little understated but once you use it you want a second set.
12) What items are you most excited to be introducing this year?
Abby: Gingham linen bedding! We have this really lovely mossy green color and a sky blue. We’ve also started adding more and more clothing, which people have been loving. We don’t always have seasonal drops, we’ve just sort of built up a product line slowly over time based on what our customers like and what we enjoy.
13) What qualities do you look for in what you choose to stock or make at Orient Linen Co?
Abby: 100% natural fiber! Only linen and cotton. Everything is machine washable or dishwasher safe. We think that you can have something beautiful that doesn’t need to feel totally precious. Daily life is busy enough!
14) You've recently introduced vintage clothing into Orient Linen Co. Tell us about the relationship between the vintage and the new products you're carrying.
Abby: Everything we do is informed by how things have been made in the past. In an “ultra-fast fashion” world it’s really refreshing to find something so well-made both in fit and just the fact that it’s held up this long.
15) Y'all both have amazing style! What are some of your biggest style inspirations?
Abby: My mom! She’s an icon, period. You! I may or may not have stolen your engineer pouch overalls and I hope you will forgive me for this…
For Mom, I love that she draws inspiration from all kinds of places … she studied the history of fashion so really just appreciates style inspo from anything from a Betsy Johnson pom pom fringed swimsuit to a 1950’s farmer. She gets a lot of great clothing from the Greenport Opportunity Shop. I love that she doesn’t follow trends at all, and I think that really comes across. She really believes that fashion should be personal - it doesn’t matter if something is really great, it has to really speak to someone’s personality, style and body.
Janet: Georgia O'Keeffe!
16) What are your favorite North Fork spots?
Abby: La Cascada for takeout. The Southold Fish Market. Mom goes to Aldo’s (coffee in Greenport) almost everyday. Of course the Orient Country Store for the best sandwiches, granola and banter.
Janet: ...And the best blueberry muffin in town! 1943 pizza.
Abby: Beall and Bell, we love Ginger.
Janet: Whiteflower Farmhouse and Garden of course. Lido in Greenport, I just bought something there! All of the wonderful farmstands. Drossos for frozen custard.
Abby: Silversands Nookies, which is adorable and Eddies, which is one of the most beautiful sunset spots. Young’s Road beach. Orient Beach State Park. The Greenport Opportunity Shop!
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Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions, Abby and Janet! Can't wait to check out all your recommended spots and shop Orient Linen Co. this summer. :)