TômTex was founded in 2020 by Uyen Tran. As a student at Parsons and later a designer at some of the US' top fashion houses, Uyen developed a sincere appreciation for and dedication to the form and design techniques that allow imagination and innovation to meet practical application on the human form.
However, something troubled her: in every studio Uyen worked at, fashion week, client needs and the bottom line always resulted in tons of waste. She saw fabrics she would have dreamed of buying herself discarded without a second thought. She learned that most of this waste contributed to the more than 16 million tons of textile waste the US produces yearly.
Uyen wanted to do something about the problem of textile waste and the overall system that creates it. When she was growing up, if something broke, you fixed it and didn't throw things away that could still serve a purpose. She grew up in Da Nang, Vietnam, in a community that understood that they lived in an ecosystem, not only with each other but with the earth itself and all the systems that make it up. She and many other designers took this perspective. They asked how to apply these ideals to all aspects of design, manufacturing, and life. The answer: circular, bio-based design.
Uyen, with the TômTex team, developed the TômTex material, a one-of-a-kind circular, and bio-based design. TômTex emphasizes a circular business model, responsibly sourcing all of our ingredients and having transparency across our entire model. We use water-based green chemistry and collaborate with nature to develop materials that utilize molecules common amongst organic materials and safe, water-based green chemistry. Our fabrics are 100% bio-based and 100% biodegradable.
TômTex was founded in 2020 by Uyen Tran. As a student at Parsons and later a designer at some of the US' top fashion houses, Uyen developed a sincere appreciation for and dedication to the form and design techniques that allow imagination and innovation to meet practical application on the human form.
However, something troubled her: in every studio Uyen worked at, fashion week, client needs and the bottom line always resulted in tons of waste. She saw fabrics she would have dreamed of buying herself discarded without a second thought. She learned that most of this waste contributed to the more than 16 million tons of textile waste the US produces yearly.
Uyen wanted to do something about the problem of textile waste and the overall system that creates it. When she was growing up, if something broke, you fixed it and didn't throw things away that could still serve a purpose. She grew up in Da Nang, Vietnam, in a community that understood that they lived in an ecosystem, not only with each other but with the earth itself and all the systems that make it up. She and many other designers took this perspective. They asked how to apply these ideals to all aspects of design, manufacturing, and life. The answer: circular, bio-based design.
Uyen, with the TômTex team, developed the TômTex material, a one-of-a-kind circular, and bio-based design. TômTex emphasizes a circular business model, responsibly sourcing all of our ingredients and having transparency across our entire model. We use water-based green chemistry and collaborate with nature to develop materials that utilize molecules common amongst organic materials and safe, water-based green chemistry. Our fabrics are 100% bio-based and 100% biodegradable.
Silk, wool, cotton and linen are developed and domesticated across the world
Animal hides and woven plant fibers are used by humans to protect the body from the elements
Uyen Tran attends Parsons and the Academy of Arts to study fashion design and was inspired by womenswear and a focus on tailoring and form
TômTex won several award like -the Biodesign Challenge, CFDA Innovation Award and LVMH Innovation award.
Uyen started developing the product, completed the first prototype, and launched TômTex with Atom Nguyen as COO.
Ross McBee joined as CSO and TômTex joined incubator, Indie Bio, garnering investments from SOSV
TômTex closed pre-seed funding, worked to build a team while finalizing version 3 of the TômTex material, participated in the first NY Fashion Week in collaboration with Peter Do, and started phase 1 of manufacturing in Vietnam and Brooklyn.
Uyen works on her thesis and begins to explore the world of bio-based materials and took inspiration from the coffee grounds she threw out every morning wondering, how could these be reused?
Leo Baekeland invented the first fully synthetic plastic, Bakelite, a durable, moldable, brightly colored object made of dyed phenol-formaldehyde plastic.
The first synthetic rubber-produced imitation leather, Naugahyde, was invented by the U.S. Rubber plant in Naugatuck, Connecticut.
Anxiety in the US grows in consumers who become increasingly aware of the "forever nature" of plastic because of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the harmful effects of BPA
Animal hides and woven plant fibers are used by humans to protect the body from the elements
Silk, wool, cotton and linen are developed and domesticated across the world
Leo Baekeland invented the first fully synthetic plastic, Bakelite, a durable, moldable, brightly colored object made of dyed phenol-formaldehyde plastic.
The first synthetic rubber-produced imitation leather, Naugahyde, was invented by the U.S. Rubber plant in Naugatuck, Connecticut.
Anxiety in the US grows in consumers who become increasingly aware of the "forever nature" of plastic because of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the harmful effects of BPA
Uyen Tran attends Parsons and the Academy of Arts to study fashion design and was inspired by womenswear and a focus on tailoring and form
Uyen works on her thesis and begins to explore the world of bio-based materials and took inspiration from the coffee grounds she threw out every morning wondering, how could these be reused?
TômTex won several award like -the Biodesign Challenge, CFDA Innovation Award and LVMH Innovation award.
Uyen started developing the product, completed the first prototype, and launched TômTex with Atom Nguyen as COO.
Ross McBee joined as CSO and TômTex joined incubator, Indie Bio, garnering investments from SOSV
TômTex closed pre-seed funding, worked to build a team while finalizing version 3 of the TômTex material, participated in the first NY Fashion Week in collaboration with Peter Do, and started phase 1 of manufacturing in Vietnam and Brooklyn.
