Personal story behind washi jeansfrom @sakata.ken

Transcript

Moved to Tokyo and I'm living in my grandmother's old apartment. When I was a child I broke this wooden paper door and shortly after I broke the door she had to move into assisted living. She passed away more than twenty years ago. At that point we were living in Australia. Now I'm here in Tokyo and I'm the first to live here since she passed and this door is still broken. It's waited thirty years for me to repair it. Japanese doors are really interesting. They're made from Japanese paper called washi. These are made from plant fibers worst commonly mulberry bark and that's grown in the mountain regions here in Japan. Washi paper is handmade in a very slow laborious process better the paper it produces is really different too. It gives you these very long fibers that are very strong, very durable and that's part of the reason why it's used in these doors. And microscopically it also is really interesting. It has this really unique hollow structure and that explains why light doesn't pass through. It sort of bounces around and gives the room a very soft flattering light. And that hollow structure also holds moisture. It can take away the water vapor in a room better also release it and that can give the room a very moderating influence for humidity. So as a material that has existed for a thousand years, it is surprisingly advanced. I've been thinking a lot about washi because not only rank you use indoors, you can also use it in clothes. Previously, I've designed jeans made from cotton and cotton is the most common fiber. And the way that you distinguish premium cotton is the length of the staple, the length of the fiber. So things like Egyptian cotton, sea island cotton, they're known for their long staples. But you can achieve that with washi too. So what you have to do is you take the paper and you cut them into a very long strip. In fact, the the fibers can be as long as you want them to be. Then you dry them and you twist them into yarn. And the result is something that's even more durable better also has those long fiber characteristics. It's also very useful because the thing same thing that regulates moisture in these doors also regulates moisture in your skin. We did a few different tests and we landed on a 50% cotton, 50% washi mix. But even then, you do have to use it in the right designs though because the washi gives it so much structure. So we decided on these wide shapes for men and for women. And I knew that the washi could help maintain and give it that architectural shape, which you can't really get in cotton unless you made it thicker. So all in all, it's really interesting material science, engineering. Ultimately, it is autobiographical design. You no, it's the washi good all over again. It's about coming home from the Best and realizing my potential as a Japanese designer. It's not really about doing things in a Better way or a Japanese way, but keeping an open mind to the next way of doing things.