Founded by designer Sophie Poelman on Waiheke Island, Lof explores the potential of locally available, abundant materials, for more regenerative interior environments. After years working internationally with design brands and pursuing a love of snowboarding across Europe and North America, Sophie returned home to Aotearoa to build a slower, more intentional practice. In 2020, she became aware of the challenges facing the strong-wool industry, with low grower returns, an undervalued fibre, and the rise of synthetic waste, and began exploring how design could help shift that story. That search led her to Palliser Ridge, a Savory Institute certified regenerative farm in the South Wairarapa, which remains Lof's primary wool source today. Collaborating with her partner in life and in work Alain Brideson, an industrial designer, the pair began experimenting with wool’s structural and acoustic potential. Supported by New Zealand government R&D funding, their research led to the development of Lof’s first series, a knitted, acoustic-dampening pendant light, launched in 2024 after five years of exploration.

Two people standing in front of a white wall with hanging beige lamps, one woman and one man, both dressed in black shirts and jeans.

Lof is led by the partnership of Textile designer Sophie Poelman and Industrial designer Alain Brideson, whose complementary backgrounds unite material sensitivity with technical basis. Sophie’s background in functional apparel and textiles informs Lof’s creative direction and material research, reimagining wool as a high-performance material for contemporary interiors. Alain brings precision and a sculptural approach to form, drawing on experience in transportation and product design to translate experimentation into refined, manufacturable designs. Their shared practice balances craft and innovation, merging poetic material expression with design discipline to create pieces that are both functional and quietly expressive.

Lof is an old Dutch word for praise or glory, also used for a song of praise, a hymn. The word carries the same meaning in Old English, and is related to the word love. The Dutch connection is personal: Sophie Poelman's family roots trace to the Frisian region (Sneek) on her father's side and to Amsterdam on her mother's side, where she also lived through her twenties. Lof was chosen as much for how it feels as for its history: soft sounding, like wool. Lofty, like light and air. Almost onomatopoeic.

"As a designer, I believe in choosing materials that meet the highest standards of beauty and function, and carry a deep responsibility to the environment. Wool, with its natural intelligence and quiet strength, perfectly embodies that ethos." 

— Sophie Poelman, Founder / Designer.