The beginning

For years I knew I wanted to build something that mattered. I just didn't know what.

But I wanted to make a real difference. When people are genuinely rested and take care of themselves, they have more of themselves left for everyhting else. More will and more energy for the people around them and for the natural world. For everything that needs us at our best.

Hawen's journey started when I noticed that my body needed more support to sleep well. For years, that meant old t-shirts, a size too big, whatever was soft and available. It never needed thinking about. Then, somewhere along the way, it stopped working. My body became sensitive in ways it hadn't been before. Fabrics that once felt fine now felt uncomfortable in many ways. If I overheated in the night, damp cotton clung to me and felt heavy. Rest itself started to feel like something I had to fight for.

So I started looking for something better. Bamboo, organic cotton, linen, even synthetics marketed as cooling. None of them felt goof enough. Synthetics smelled and barely breathed at all. Thin cotton was gentler, but came with its own weight: water, pesticides and land use. Linen came close. Nothing did what I actually needed until I rediscovered silk.

Silk feels almost like nothing against the skin. It moves with you instead of against you. It breathes when you are too warm and warms you when you are cold. Even a little sweat does not make it feel unpleasant the way it does with almost everything else. Once I felt it, I understood why it had lasted for centuries.

Then I learned how it is usually made. Most silk requires the silkworm to be boiled alive inside its cocoon, so the single thread stays unbroken. I was comparing fibers online, moving between tabs and spreadsheets, and then I realized that silk wasn't ethical.

That is where peace silk entered the picture. It lets the silkworm complete its life. The moth emerges, and only then is the empty cocoon collected. The thread is shorter, the process slower, and the fabric a little more unpredictable in the most beautiful way. It also costs more, because intention takes time, and time is not free.

I admit tthat the price scared me at first. I already talked myself out of it. But slowly, I noticed something. I would have saved up and bought it myself, if someone else had made it. I already believed in living intentionally, choosing fewer things and better ones for two decades. So I decided the option had to exist, even if it wasn't for everyone.

Hawen is for anyone whose body is asking for something more than it used to need, and for anyone moving through a season that stops them to turn inward. Peace silk is where we started. It will not be the only material we work with, but it was the right one to begin with. It needs exactly the kind of care we want to bring to rest itself.

I built this slowly, for quite some time. Just before launch, Anna and Maryam appeared, right when I needed them. And Maryam had been cheering me on long before that. Their support has brought Hawen alive. Thank you! And thank you for reading! This is only the beginning!

 

Janina Weckström, founder of Hawen