MARU MORI began with a single conviction: The things closest to your skin deserve the most care.
Our boxer shorts are made only of mercerised cotton, a fabric that goes through a specialised finishing process to strengthen the fibre and give it a lasting softness and shine.
We source our fabric from a mill in northern Portugal known for producing some of the finest cottons in Europe. Our garments are cut and sewn by a manufacturer in Portugal, whose expertise in intimate apparel spans decades. Every pair passes through hands that understand what quality construction feels like.
The cut is loose and considered. We chose mercerised cotton over silk because it breathes, it lasts, and it improves with wear. The waistband sits comfortably without binding. The seams are clean. There is nothing superfluous.
The name MARU MORI comes from Pablo Neruda's Ode to My Socks (Oda a los calcetines, 1956). The poem begins with Maru Mori bringing the poet a pair of socks she knitted by hand, and it is about the dignity of wearing something made with genuine care. Fitting for the foundation we are building. Read the poem.
Years later, John Koenig's The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows took her name for a word of its own: maru mori, “the heartbreaking simplicity of ordinary things.” It is as good a description as any of what we are trying to make.
MARU MORI is based in New York. We are a small company with a deliberate focus which we intend to maintain.