Crafting Family

Hello, this is Amy, founder of SJO, and today I want to share with you the story of how I connected with Juli, my wonderful business partner and manufacturer in Indonesia. Her and I are pictured below working on a domestic knitting machine.

From early 2017 until late 2024, I ran this business alone. This meant that I made every bikini myself by hand, along with customer service, social media management, accounting and finances, modeling, photographing, content creation, legal, packaging and shipping, website building, and everything else that is involved in running and growing a small business. 

In 2021 and 2022 multiple Instagram reels went viral, which brought in lots of demand. I had hundreds of people asking for custom swimwear and clothing and I only had the capacity to make about 60 orders a year. At the time I used a waitlist where I wrote down everyone interested in a long line that I went through one-by-one. Once this list broke 300, I knew things had to change.

There were 2 options:  find people to help me or upgrade my technology. Since I didn't even earn enough money to pay myself, hiring someone in Norway was out of the question. I tried to work with factories abroad, but they could not make my products the same way, nor could they meet my sustainability needs. So, I decided to upgrade my technology. This wasn't a walk in the park either, and it took me 2 years to actually get a semi-industrial knitting machine, linker and cone winder. 

And there I was, I had all the tools but none of the knowledge. I would need to learn 3 advanced machines from scratch, and I can't tell you how daunting that felt at the time. Not only that, but I was still working about 60-hour weeks to maintain the original business. I was exhausted, burnt out, and overwhelmed. I was tired of doing this alone.

So, I prayed. "God, I'm so tired of doing this alone. If you want me to keep going, then I need help. Please show me the way forwards". And He answered.

That week I got an Instagram DM from a woman named Juli in Indonesia. The next week we got on a zoom call together. She was a female entrepreneur so much like myself. She had started a knit and crochet studio in her home and hired women in her community who needed work. She cared about treating people the right way and about creating high quality products. She cared about the environment and sustainability and could make custom pieces. We were, literally, a match made in heaven. 

In October of 2024, my husband and I flew to Indonesia to meet her and her team. We spent over 2 weeks there in Juli's home, setting up the foundation of our partnership. I worked with her wonderful team of women, training them in machine knitting and crocheting for SJØ swimwear. But 2 weeks was not enough time, and for the next year we continued to work together remotely. I made tutorial after tutorial, and we made sample after sample. I had to learn to work with a team, the ladies had to learn to make SJØ swimwear exactly the way I do, and we had to set up an international business system. It was a long and demanding process, but we were patient and meticulous. We did things the hard way, the slow and personal way. 

And just like that, after an intensive year of labor, we have set up something completely new and unique. We are now 8 women total, 7 in Indonesia and me in Norway. Every bikini is still handmade and unique, but more than that, every bikini sold helps employ real women and support their families. I might be biased, but I think this business is special, both in its ethics as well as its product. We are truly a small and personal luxury fashion brand. And for some reason that I don't yet understand, God keeps opening the doors and breathing life into SJØ. 

SJØ continues to exist in the hands of talented woman and in their homes. Everything is made the old-fashioned way, by hand, one-by-one, for specific customers. Every woman is paid a generous salary and is able to work from home. I don't know any other business that operates like this, but it is the only way that makes sense to me. It is personal and ethical. No unnecessary waste, no shortcuts, just a real small business, real craftswomen, creating slow, sustainable swimwear. 

Lastly, I want to thank you for reading this story. There are not many people who care about where or who makes their clothes, so it's incredible that you do. None of this would be possible without customers who genuinely want to make a difference and take a stand against fast fashion, waste and greed.