When architect Takashi Kato discovered Thai silk during a job in Thailand about 5 years ago, he was captivated by its beauty, high quality and amazing shiny texture. Especially since woven patterns in Japanese silk are hard to find nowadays because of machines taking over the dying process, Takeshi Kato and his partner Kaori Mikami decided to re-introduce Thai silk to Japan - in the shape of traditional Kimonos.
written by YO-CO
translated by Natsumi
PingMag talked to Kaori Mikami and Takashi Kato about the special features of Thai silk, how it is made and why they decided to make Kimonos out of it.
How long ago did you come up with the idea to create Kimonos out of Thai silk?
It was actually only a year ago, when we decided to make Kimonos out of this stunning fabrics woven in north-east Thailand. The whole Kimono-making business is still quite new to us, you could say.
What is special about Thai silk? What made you get into it in the first place?
First of all it is stunningly beautiful. The sheen of the material, the colors and the high quality fabric are truly amazing.
There are two different ways of dyeing hand-woven fabrics – “piece-dyeing” (weaving a plain white cloth and then dying the fabric) and “yarn dyeing” (dyeing the yarn first and then using it to weave the fabric). The latter requires tremendous effort and skill to realise the intended pattern. When dyeing the yarn, you have to tie the yarn bit by bit according to the pattern it is supposed to make before dyeing. While weaving, if have to be careful not to misaligned the yarn, because even some small mistake makes the whole fabric worthless.
dyed silk yarn
making of Thai silk yarn
In the old days, yarn-dyed fabric was called “Kasuri” and it was very common in Japan, but now, the number of weavers has declined, and it’s a rarity only being produced in limited regions. These days, most fabrics in Japan are piece-dyed, thanks to the development of machines dying the patterns.
Thai silk is all hand woven in a very skilful and unique way! We wanted to bring that back to Japan.
How long does it take to complete one fabric?
Woven silk textiles require about 3 months up to 1 year each for one weaver to complete.
This place looks like a treasure chest turned inside out! Amazing colors and textures! It’s almost a shame to make kimono out of them.
I know! Most Japanese have a stereotype image for Thai silk being bristly, brightly coloured, and rather low quality fabric. I want those people to take a look at these: truly magnificent fabrics woven by humble, unfamous craftspeople. The patterns are unique to the style and skill of each individual artisan of villages in the North East region of Thailand, known as Esan region.
What difficulties are there when producing a traditional garment out of cloth that isn’t specifically made for it?
Firstly, it takes a long time to finish. But I can’t rush the weavers or ask them to produce more, of course. Also, both the Japanese Kimono and Thai silk were comprised of old traditional culture, so in many occasions the techniques used in Kimono making and those of producing Thai textiles don’t always match. Therefor it is hard to communicate our ideas and explain detailed requests for designs to the Thai artisans.
Besides, the width of the fabric is different, too. The measurement for Japanese Kimono fabrics is 38 cm wide 12 meters long. Now trying to make a Kimono from Thai silk which is 100 cm wide, you need at least 6 meters, in some cases a little bit more. And the way the fabric is used is different in the first place. Most Japanese Kimono designs use the fabric longitudinally while the Thai silk is designed laterally. When you cut the fabric, you have to keep this in mind! It requires quite some expertise in design ability. Moreover, Kimono gives a totally different demeanour when it’s actually worn with belt strings and sashes fastened… so it’s actually quite difficult to bring out the best in Thai silk fabric patterns.
Why did you come up with the idea to make Kimonos in the first place? Aren’t you originally an architect?
When we discovered the beauty of Thai silk, we just felt obliged to do something with it. To get the most out of a product showing the beautiful sheen and texture of Thai silk, we thought of garments. However, each piece of woven silk is unique, because it is strictly handmade. Therefor they just aren’t suitable for mass production, which ruled out western garments. This then kind of lead us to Kimono, where each piece is unique and people appreciate hight quality materials.
How long and what did you have to study in order to be able to produce Kimonos now?
We still study the general knowledge of Kimono as well as Thai silk, but basically just rely on the knowledge we acquired of how to coordinate Thaisilk with Kimono. We also think that it is good for the work we do, that we are not from the traditional Japanese Kimono scene. That is how we won’t get stuck with a stereotype image of Kimono, but are free to come up with something new.
We also started wearing them ourselves.
Kaori Mikami dressed in Kimono
Takashi Kato in full male Kimono
How are these Kimonos designed? Do you just chose some of the beautiful cloths they produce and simply decide the layout for the Kimono?
I don’t dye, weave or tailor, but some Thai silk fabrics need to be cut in order to create the right design. So I basically “cut as a designer” which it’s really hard to do, since you have to be really careful not to mess up the pattern.
And who actually makes them?
The Thai silk Obi we used for our exhibition at Hikariya (kouhoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa) was made by a Japanese woman in Bangkok, Thailand. She also sewed our other Kimonos for us, but we can’t tell much about her yet. Sorry!
Could you compare your aims to a conteporary Jim Thompson maybe?
No, Jim Thompson succeeded by adopting western tastes in Thai silk and selling them back to his country. We are set to work on bringing out the rich, traditional characteristics of Thai silk - the way it is originally designed to be. Our main aim is to introduce the beauty of Thai silk, so therefor we aren’t really insistent on the format of Kimono. For instance, we hope to expand into interior fabrics such as tapestries and lamp shades.
If you have any good ideas, please let us know.
Amazing to see two Japanese, who had never worn Kimono before getting into it through Thai silk! Wonderful project. Thank you very much for your time!
NOTE: If you are interested in having a Thai silk Kimono made for you, please mail them to kimono_thai@yahoo.co.jp
18 Comments
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None found
beautiful! I’d love to own one. but I guess the price tag must be rather hefty…
Posted by: drone9 on April 27th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
amazing beautiful!i love them and wanna produce some of myself…
Posted by: Olltta on April 28th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
I like today’s announcement
Posted by: claytonian on April 28th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
It’s a great idea!!!
Posted by: Tingallerina on April 29th, 2006 at 2:11 am
very beautiful and so wonderful
Posted by: nokchiangmai on May 8th, 2006 at 1:10 am
Dear Sir / Madam,
Do have a link exchange with any other Thai related websites?
If so would you consider having a link exchange with us here at; http://www.thaishop2you.com
We are an arts and crafts website and promote Thai products worldwide.
We stock a vast range of products along with some silk items also.
Our email address is; info@thaishop2you.com
Please feel free to contact us relating to a link exchange and or promoting our Thai silk products together.
Many thanks, to you and look forward to hearing your response as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Richard
Thaishop2you.com
Posted by: Richard Ogle on June 16th, 2006 at 1:50 am
my dream is to have a kimono! i’ve always wanted one!
Posted by: Jonelle on October 6th, 2006 at 2:59 am
Konnichiwa
I would like you to consider our website of Thai Silk that I guarantee in quality of our craftmanship.
Thank you ,
Wipawee L.
http://www.amornsilk.com
Posted by: Wipawee L. on October 10th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
THIS STUFF TOTALLY KICKS ASS DUDES I TOTALLY WANT SOME,OH WAIT OUR WE TALKIN ABOUT THE SAME THING DUDES
Posted by: NICK P on November 25th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
these clothes R H C
O A O
C R R
K D E
Posted by: rose on November 25th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Beautiful Kimono.
Posted by: Jill on August 17th, 2007 at 12:19 am
exactly.. thanks for subject
Posted by: kurye on February 22nd, 2008 at 7:52 am
How do you make one>? email me it cruellladevolk@aol.com
Posted by: sophia on May 10th, 2008 at 1:45 am
How do you make one? (2)
I just start to experimenting with tradicional silk to make posters, and I am very interesting in this Thai silk technic.
email: f_hebaru@hotmail.com
thanx!
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süper site
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