Gravel & Gold is an independent, woman-owned design collective in San Francisco, California. Since 2008, we have supported one another and a broader community of artists to create joyful, useful items. We share business responsibilities, a studio, and meals, we run workshops, and we take care to express common values through the work we create.

Tomra (Tom+Debra), who generally takes care of business here at G&G, is a real roll-up-her-sleeves, throw on some earrings and get the job done kind of gal. What she enjoys most about running a creative small business is the variety in her day-to-day tasks and the opportunity to work with an ever-evolving cast of collaborators. She’s a classic Scorpio but considers herself well-tempered by her Gemini moon. To put it another way, she has a hard time turning down until she goes for a swim or escapes to the woods. 

Tomra majored in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, which led to some subsequent years studying organic farming and sustainable textile practices, and then lent her talent to the family business (a science fiction publishing company!) before finding herself at Gravel & Gold. She has a longtime habit of earning her goin’-out money through vintage resale, which was ignited when she was a super tall 12-year-old who couldn’t fit into any of the pants Wet Seal was selling. That’s probably why she’s committed herself to making well-fitting clothes today.  

Holly is in charge of apparel design, product development, and managing production for the Gravel & Gold line of fabrics, clothing, and accessories. A craftsperson and technician as well as a designer, Holly is a skilled seamstress who threw her talents into making G&G’s first collection back in 2012. Today, patternmaking and garment construction are her two biggest loves within the G&G ecosystem, and she considers the engineering of our Placer and Painter pants — flattering and tailored, yet comfortable around the middle! — a real feather in her cap.

As a kid, Holly played underneath her mom’s sewing table, making Barbie clothes out of socks and dresses out of bedsheets. She went on to study textiles at CCA (art history and surface design), apprenticed with Russian master tailor Victoria Abashidze, worked in the San Francisco Opera’s costume department hand-painting ornamentation onto floor-length capes, and ran her own tailoring business on Valencia Street. Now, outside of G&G, she cooks, feeds her fruit-and-vegetable obsession — at the farmers’ market, in her rooftop garden and the orchards near her hometown of Davis, CA — and generally can’t stop moving: she dances, bikes, and does yoga all the time. She also takes a bath most nights.