The wait is over. Juneteenth 2025 marks the beginning of a new material tradition.
SAY HELLO TO @COMOCOCOTTON !!
Today, on Juneteenth, I’m proud to announce the birth of COMOCO—the culmination of years of quiet labor, personal investigation, and unrelenting perseverance.
I’ve long believed that new stories create new forms of power. History can be broken with the same strokes that once made it feel indelible and impenetrable. I’m excited to bring forward the stories of farms like the Moore family of Hereford, North Carolina, Black families of the rural south who’ve personified perseverance and preservation.
For too long, cotton has haunted the Black diaspora—its symbolic imprint epigenetic, and its trauma inherited. COMOCO is here to RECLAIM COTTON and reimagine this relationship as one of agency and empowerment.
COMOCO’s Black-Grown Foundation Wear is the new protocol for the finest and flyest basics. The 2024 Harvest is now shipping. A New Material Tradition. Let’s get it.
Visit comococotton.com to shop the First Harvest. Supplies are limited. Impact is everlasting.
✨ NEW YORKER!!! ✨
Thanks to Dorothy Wickenden for your curiosity. No one has ever asked about my story, but plenty of assumptions about me have supplanted it. I’m glad that so much of it is now in the world.
Relearning myself after the show came out has been painful and disorientating. It made a private person public, and in the process, anxious and reclusive. I’ve felt so much pressure from so many direction‘s that I have yet to enjoy any of my success.
Fortunately, I'm more free now than I’ve been in a minute, and this article is another chance for me to blissfully succumb to the staggering blessings that continue to unfold in front of me and fall at my feet. Even when things are hard.
There will be parts of this story that are revelatory even for those who’ve known me for a long time. That’s not a coincidence! That’s how we move in my family. I can’t believe they agreed!
There are lots of people who weren’t mentioned in this story who had more than a hand in everything good that has come for me, and apologies for omissions but especially my sister Donna, and my Riri, Shayna and Tracie all raised me.
My brother from another Pepper who was there with me in South Africa, Vanessa and Jessi Elkan, Samantha Crocker, Naomi Starkman, Jeff Gordinier, Dave Alexander, Lauren Weiss. Franklin, Debby, Angus. 🤍🤍🤍
KB, Xandre, Ashley Treni, MissK, Miss Stokes and Ora for letting me sleep on your couches when Whetstone was getting off the ground.
Thanks especially to Fabi and Karis who saw me in this light before I saw myself. Roger Ross Williams, Dr. J and Shoshana Guy, who held me down by telling me to stand tall. To my old boss Jeff Hanak who seeded my career in media, and my homies friends Tunde Wey and Osayi Endolyn.
I can’t believe I get to see the names of my ancestors lifted up in this way. Six generations from the Weaver plantation to New Yorker pages!
Also shoutout to the nosy folks who have been dying to know my personal business!! Big day for y’all too!! Everyone else, I’d you have half an hour to reach the origin story of an origin forager, it’s all there in The New Yorker!!
With gratitude,
-sAs-
This is a season of gratitude. THANK YOU. In the name of Jesus and every Abrahimc faith and equally every denomination or non at all other than the grace of gawd hear me clearly when I say it again—thank you. My blessings are immense and profound and unfolding. 🙏🏿 I must go on record (again!) as saying there will never be another gift more significant than High on the Hog. For all of y’all who have sent messages please know they have been received with awe, humility and gargantuan gratitude. Reciprocal if not explicitly said.
I love Dr. J so much and so glad that she (*you, DR, J!) is here to live through the accolades. Please don’t stop them from coming in. Please tune in if you haven’t. I’m so grateful. That is a mantra and prayer. A preacher with no congregation is isolation. Yall let me know I’m not alone.
When you watch #HighontheHog I hope you don’t lose the message. Black people been present in every facet of history and any omission is supremacy which should dismantled asap and never be confused with the TRUTH! Shoutout to my daddy on the eve of the eve of 70 who taught me that the truth would set me free, and I’ll be damned if that wasn’t the rillest shit he ever wrote. Take the message forth and expand. Thankyouthankyouthankyou.
I’m the only one
making brand new vintage garments
I’m the only one that Grand Cru’d Black farmers
When im online I’m surrounded by performers
When im offline all i see is receipts.
All I see is vanguard, knit fabrics by feet
No fabrication, No make believe
Only manifestation
Just make, believe.
There’s custom stitched in yarn then there’s custom yarn from Black farms. Tread carefully: New levels, new d’evils.
Plenty wanna make history. I would rather break it.
Masks come off when shackles do.
Dead presidents are full of cotton fiber, all mummified. Cotton money preceded the USD, it was the underwriting.
I am the descendant of unprecedented but equally
a progenitor.
Argue over history.
The truth is in the present and it’s evident.
What comes next arrives for the time. No CPT, No GPT.
18/1 waxed on call me Daniel-san x Daniel’s son.
I am in such awe of everything I consumed over the weekend @alabamachanin ’s phenomenal @projectthreadways I will be processing for months, and maybe forever.
I saw old friends in a new context and met new friends destined to be future OGs — comrades in cotton reclamation and ancestral preservation.
Thank you to @_marlence for sharing your stories on the intersection of Mardi Gras tribal culture and couture — I was enraptured. Canvas for the Big Chief incoming! 💧
@shradhakochhar your testimony on family lineage and spinning opera was a vital reminder of why have I have chosen the path that I have, and a heartening revelation that I am not alone in the journey. Can’t wait for what comes next! ✊🏿✊🏽
@historybeforeus you are a tireless, talented and enthusiastic documentarian of Black cultural memory and the screening of your Echoes of the Forks of Cypress moved me to tears.
You, Cousin Karen and “Dissident Daughter of the Confederacy” Curtis Flowers are reminding us that Multiracial//generational solidarity has been the roadmap to abolition and liberation for as long as we’ve been a nation. Grateful to witness this interpretation.
Ofc many thanks to @alabamachaninlife for such an inspired convening and your ongoing support for our work at COMOCO. Ready!
Before COMOCO, there was Don Alfredo.
Eleven years ago I came to Oaxaca chasing the origin of maize. I’ve never stopped returning.
Oaxaca always instills within me a specific wisdom, the elusive sort you don’t realize is missing until it arrives. Fresh eyes.
Alfredo, without trying, changed everything—propelling me toward my own roots in cotton agriculture as a means of creative expression and remembrance.
From dyes made of flowers and fruit to fibers of cotton, piña, agave, bamboo, and jute, nothing has taught me more about “industry” than witnessing the hypnotic rhythms of a pedal loom in motion—warp and weft latching so tightly together the fabric appears water repellent.
That is the lesson of the loom: move with intention, and use the tension to your benefit. Don’t forget.
From field to fabric with @comococotton . Ever wondered how you can directly support modern-day cotton growers in the South? Our John Henry T-shirt and Shop Rag invites support of the Aama Sustainability Initiative creating a vertical supply chain for these materials and welcomes a dialogue on equity and ownership.
For House of Aama’s SS26 collection, we partnered with COMOCO by Stephen Satterfield, which is reviving Black-grown cotton in the United States, launching our Aama Sustainability Initiative.
This initiative centers on creating a vertical supply chain by partnering with Black farmers in the South to produce cotton. With this partnership, we are reclaiming the narrative around cotton production, transforming it from a symbol of historical oppression into one of empowerment and sustainability. By integrating locally sourced, natural fibers into our designs, we honor Southern heritage while fostering economic opportunities for Black agricultural communities, championing a farm-to-store approach.
This partnership is built around the agricultural legacy of the South, focusing on sustainability and reclaiming the historical narrative of cotton production. With House of Aama’s new vertical supply chain initiative with Black farmers this proposed collaboration pays homage to Black excellence, resilience, and the journey from cotton fields to global influence. COMOCO purchases cotton from Black farmers at a premium, then use the media to tell their stories, advocate and inspire. All with the goal of creating a textile manufacturer rooted in lineage, liberation and craft. A material legacy historically tied to oppression is being reimagined into a symbol of excellence and empowerment. #houseofaama #comococotton
Field to fabric. Our John Henry tee and shop rag are now available for pre-order for one week only! 🔨🎣🌾
After much excitement from our community, we are bringing you a special opportunity to preorder our John Henry cotton line in partnership with @comococotton .
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For House of Aama’s SS26 collection, we partnered with COMOCO, which is reviving Black-grown cotton in the United States, launching our Aama Sustainability Initiative.
This initiative centers on creating a vertical supply chain by partnering with Black farmers in the South to produce cotton. With this partnership, we are reclaiming the narrative around cotton production, transforming it from a symbol of historical oppression into one of empowerment and sustainability. By integrating locally sourced, natural fibers into our designs, we honor Southern heritage while fostering economic opportunities for Black agricultural communities, championing a farm-to-store approach.
This partnership is built around the agricultural legacy of the South, focusing on sustainability and reclaiming the historical narrative of cotton production. With House of Aama’s new vertical supply chain initiative with Black farmers this proposed collaboration pays homage to Black excellence, resilience, and the journey from cotton fields to global influence. COMOCO purchases cotton from Black farmers at a premium, then use the media to tell their stories, advocate and inspire. All with the goal of creating a textile manufacturer rooted in lineage, liberation and craft. A material legacy historically tied to oppression is being reimagined into a symbol of excellence and empowerment.
#houseofaama #comoco #legacy
House of Aama x @comococotton SS26 Shop Rag and John Henry Tees 🔨🌾
For House of Aama’s SS26 collection, we partnered with COMOCO, which is reviving Black-grown cotton in the United States, launching our Aama Sustainability Initiative.
This initiative centers on creating a vertical supply chain by partnering with Black farmers in the South to produce cotton. With this partnership, we are reclaiming the narrative around cotton production, transforming it from a symbol of historical oppression into one of empowerment and sustainability. By integrating locally sourced, natural fibers into our designs, we honor Southern heritage while fostering economic opportunities for Black agricultural communities, championing a farm-to-store approach.
This partnership is built around the agricultural legacy of the South, focusing on sustainability and reclaiming the historical narrative of cotton production. With House of Aama’s new vertical supply chain initiative with Black farmers this proposed collaboration pays homage to Black excellence, resilience, and the journey from cotton fields to global influence. COMOCO purchases cotton from Black farmers at a premium, then use the media to tell their stories, advocate and inspire. All with the goal of creating a textile manufacturer rooted in lineage, liberation and craft. A material legacy historically tied to oppression is being reimagined into a symbol of excellence and empowerment.
#houseofaama #comoco #legacy
There’s no such thing as a Black-owned supply chain in apparel. There’s also no shame in that.
But COMOCO is changing things.
See, a truly Black-owned supply chain would require ownership at every step—the means of production itself. We do not buy blank shirts, we make them. We buy raw cotton directly from Black farmers who own their farms. We move that raw material through our network of ginner, spinners, fabric manufacturers—all in North Carolina, all within a couple hundred miles radius.
The culinary world has done a remarkable job communicating the virtues of farm-to-table consumption. Anyone who has ever grown or tasted a tomato from their own garden knows that provenance is a commentary on quality. It’s also a commentary on common sense.
Less than 2% of clothes purchased by “Americans” are made in the USA. This doesn’t pass the common sense vibe check.
“Americans” champion “Made in USA” in theory, but when it comes to dollars, we prioritize keeping them in our pockets above all other values. We’re comfortable with supremacist rhetoric about our preferences until the receipt arrives.
COMOCO owns more than raw cotton and a cut and sew operation—we own the hard-earned relationships across our supply chain that make what we do possible and singular.
So no, there is not yet a Black-owned supply chain in apparel, but we have @comococotton , and for now, that’s the closest thing in the market.
De minimis is ending. Y’all come see about us before you’re forced to.
