Hi it's Shohei,
The SASHIKO Noragi was the only clothing from the "HOME COLLECTION" released a few months ago. The collection was planned to color your lives while staying at home due to the pandemic.
Even though it has been getting hot in Tokyo, this Noragi jacket has been popular in the store. Today, I will introduce the background of the jacket.
Also, there is the detail about the temporally closure of our Tokyo store at the end.
A dye and weave atelier established 150 years ago
This SASHIKO fabric was produced in an atelier with a history of about 150 years, where everything from yarn dyeing to weaving is done in an integrated manner. They are located in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture where historically high-quality cotton fabrics have been produced. I'm sure many of you are already familiar with it.
Just FYI, that region used to be called "Enshu". It is like Tokyo used to be called "Edo".
The fabric is woven with two types of indigo-dyed yarns, "dark" and "light".
By applying "light" indigo-dyed yarn as SASHIKO to the dark indigo-dyed ground part, the pattern is expressed with depth and three-dimensionality.
With a closer look, you can find some color unevenness on SASHIKO parts produced by manual works. It cannot be expressed by the chemical/machine dyeing. The warmth of indigo-dyeing and manual works can be felt.
Benefits of Indigo dyeing
Although the demand for natural indigo dyeing has declined in modern times, natural indigo dyeing originally had a variety of benefits. It was so popular in Japan because ancient people knew the benefits, and was a good method to cherish things they had.
Here are some examples of the benefits.
Improve fiber strength, antibacterial effect, insect repellent, detoxification effect and so on...
Those benefits make us possible to produce Vintage BORO Jacket.
In the DNA of Japanese people, there is a mentality of sustainability. (It can be said to other cultures.) People in the past have embodied it without being aware of it, but people today may be so busy with the daily lives that we simply forget.
Updating the traditional Noragi (Haori)
Noragi is a traditional Japanese workwear explained in this article. KUON updates it with modern approaches while retaining the relaxed fit of the original Noragi.
He designed it with a calculated flow of fabric so that the excess fabric looks smart and elegant. It is one secret of KUON design.
This has only one size, but all people in our team(from 160cm to 187cm) can wear it in good looks by just rolling the sleeves thanks to his design.
Two handwarmers make you to be able to go out without bags.
a one-mile-wear, but I can go out with my friends with wearing it!
Thank you!
P.S. Our Tokyo store will be closed from 11th to 14th of June because most of our products will be in chalt Fukuoka as a pop-up-store. We look forward to your visit!
Plus!! as we informed in the past IGTV live, "KUONｘTAGS WKGPTY" collection will be available in WISM Shinjuku as a form of pop-up-store, too.
*Kindly noted that some products are temporally unavailable at KUON Online Store.
