Community Highlights: Meet Kim DiMarco of Somato Textiles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim DiMarco.

Hi Kim, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started my career in textiles in a very untraditional way. While I was still in design school, a sales rep came to speak to our class about contract fabrics. I was instantly inspired by the creativity, the storytelling, and the idea of connecting with people through design. After class, I asked her how I could work for her, and she told me to volunteer. So for four months, I drove two and a half hours each way to work in her basement until I earned a sales assistant role.

That first step led me to spend 16 years building the Canadian business for a California textile brand, eventually running customer service, opening a warehouse, and managing international sales. I always treated each role as my career, not just a job, and that determination gave me a deep foundation in the industry.

After a brief detour running a children’s product company, I came back to textiles with a vision to create something of my own. I wanted to bring back creativity to hospitality fabrics, build a values-driven company, and find a solution for textile end-of-life recycling. That’s how Somato Textiles was born — a hospitality-focused textile company centered on people, planet, and product.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. The biggest challenge has been access to capital. I started out doing what most entrepreneurs do — meeting with banks, investors, and private equity groups. But I quickly learned that banks had largely stopped lending to startups, and many investors were asking for improbable returns, sometimes 10x on their money. In 2024, only about 2–3% of venture capital funding went to female founders, which makes it incredibly difficult to break through.

So, I decided to bet on myself. As a single mom of two young teens, I wanted to show my kids that hard work and determination pay off. I took the leap and used my home equity to fund Somato Textiles. It was a big risk, but it gave me the freedom to build the company on my own terms — with creativity, community, and transparency at the center.

Of course, self-funding means wearing every hat — sales, operations, product development — while also being mindful of every dollar. But it’s also been empowering. I get to create a business that reflects my values: pricing that’s fair, paying textile artists on every yard sold, sourcing closer to where furniture is made, and working towards 100% of our woven textiles can be recycled at end of life.

I believe access to proper capital is crucial to a business’s success. We need to rethink how we support small businesses, because without that, large corporations end up controlling the market and shaping every community to look the same. Imagine if our neighborhoods were only lined with big box retailers and chain stores — we can do better by investing in diverse, independent businesses that add real character and value to our cities.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Somato Textiles is a hospitality-focused textile company built on three core values: people, planet, and product. We create high-quality, durable contract fabrics specifically for hotel guestrooms and restaurants, with a strong emphasis on creativity and sustainability.

One thing that makes us different is how we’ve brought storytelling back into textiles. Our line is designed like a menu — our price list is literally a menu — and every pattern is named after historic restaurants and hotels from the 1920s through the 1940s. Designers love that extra layer of history and hospitality culture woven into their projects.

We also pride ourselves on running the business with heart. Our sampling and warehouse teams are two incredible women from the fashion world, and we’ve built flexible hours, gas stipends, and pathways for growth into their roles. My goal is to always pay people the very most, not the very least, and create opportunities for them to thrive.

On the sustainability side, we’re preparing to launch an end-of-life recycling program where 100% of our woven textiles can be turned into biochar — a material that can be repurposed into things like ground cover, tires, or even odor-absorbing products. It’s a closed-loop approach that helps hotels reduce waste while giving textiles a second life.

Most of our collection is priced under $40 a yard, we pay textile artists on every yard sold, and we’re committed to sourcing at least 50% of our line from North America. We only introduce two small collections a year, keeping our assortment intentional, cohesive, and timeless.

What I’m most proud of brand-wise is that Somato has soul. We’re not trying to flood the market with endless SKUs or blend in with the big players. We’re here to make hospitality textiles more creative, more sustainable, and more human.

What are your plans for the future?
Looking ahead, my biggest focus is growth with intention. I don’t want Somato to be the biggest textile company, but I do want us to be the most thoughtful. We plan to keep expanding our hospitality collections while staying true to our promise of producing less, not more — two curated launches a year that balance timeless solids with playful patterns.

I’m especially excited about fully rolling out our textile end-of-life recycling program. Being able to certify hotels that their fabrics have been transformed into biochar instead of landfill waste is a game-changer for our industry. I also see opportunities to partner with companies who can repurpose that char into useful products, which creates a true closed-loop system.

Internally, I’m focused on building out our team and investing in our people. As we grow, I want to continue providing pathways for employees to develop new skills, move into leadership, and share in the company’s success through profit-sharing.

For me, the future is about proving that a values-driven company can thrive — that you can lead with creativity, sustainability, and heart, and still build something profitable and lasting.

Pricing:

• We wholesale our textiles strictly for hospitality projects.
• We are excited to hear from many hospitality designers, hotel/restaurant brands and ownership.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://somatotextiles.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/somato.textiles
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/somato-textiles/