Words by Jesse Dorris
It all started with a bunch of wood scraps and a pair of designers savvy enough to see their potential. Natalie Page owned her own retail business, selling beautiful objects made by other people, while making her own from ceramics on her off-hours. Robert Ogden was designing and making his own lighting and custom furniture, while also working as the head designer for a home decor company. They both loved antiquing—in fact, they met one day while independently out hunting for vintage treasures. Soon, they were partners in business and life as the owners of Lostine, a design resource based in Philadelphia but who sourced from all over the world. The pair saw an opportunity. “We didn’t just want to make product,” Ogden says. “We wanted to make heirloom quality product with a small global footprint. We each already had our own creative outlets.” Lostine was a way for them to make their creativity work, together.
In the beginning, Ogden says, “over 95% of Lostine’s products were being made overseas, in eight different countries.” The pair respected the global design inspiration. “But we wanted to push towards American manufacturing,” Page says. “We have all these local resources available to us. We chose to double-down on those and see how far we could take the business.”
Their Philadelphia home base, situated near Pennsylvania's robust lumber industry, proved to be the cornerstone of the brand. “We realized we could get our wood in Pennsylvania,” she says, “and came to rely on these locally-sourced materials.” The city’s ample artisan population was equally valuable. “We were excited to build our workshop staff with creatives who could share our dedication to craft, while innovating our own small-batch manufacturing processes.” They looked to already established furniture factories as resources for the initial Lostine offerings. “We started off with cutting boards which we made from cut-offs from furniture factories,” she says. “Scrap wood, so to speak.” These early iterations of upscale upcycling were a hit, making Lostine fortunate enough to face the next challenge: how to scale up.
New designs included barstools, mirrors, and peg racks, along with a striking arrangement of peppermills. “We launched wood candlestick holders at a time when there were so few of them in the market,” Page says, “that we had to search high and low to find the tapers in order to merchandise them.” Customers loved the ahead-of-their-time products, and they could barely keep up with the demand. “We’d be taking the designs from shop to shop to shop. We’d get wood from here, and then take it to someone else to cut it, and another person to finish it. It was really very hard,” says Page. “We were surprised that Lostine didn’t fall off a cliff immediately,” she laughs. Instead, they planted seeds, investing the time and resources to build a team of woodworkers, starting with a master artisan who manages the wood shop to this day. “We love where we live, and we want to take care of it and be responsible,” says Ogden.
“Although it is the combining of materials like leather, metal and ceramic that is the DNA of our designs,” Page affirms, “the common thread throughout the Lostine collection is wood.” But they didn’t stop there. The same values—thoughtful design, respect for material, cherishing of local traditions and techniques—have, over the years, blossomed into textile and home products. It only makes sense that Lostine also harnesses Page’s passion for ceramics and Ogden’s lighting expertise for extensive collections, too. Recently, they’ve even returned to the passion that first brought them together, with a burgeoning warehouse of enviable vintage items just waiting to accessorize their own products. “Art is something we value in our life,” she says. “Art, good design, craftsmanship. We seek it out in other places and other people.” And then they bring it home.
