Second-hand kimono recycled into new clothing

KITAKYUSHU — Old kimono with vibrant colors and different designs are getting a second life by being made into suit jackets, shirts and other garments for men. The clothes were on display for a limited time at a department store in Fukuoka City.

Far East Fabric is a Kitakyushu-based startup founded in 2020. It tackles the task of expanding the sales channels of products at home and abroad that are manually recycled from second-hand kimono by artisans.

The fabric of second-hand kimono is made from Oshima-tsumugi silk, a type of fabric produced in Kagoshima Prefecture using traditional craft techniques.

The company’s founding was prompted by an auction of used goods. The company’s founder noticed that there were a large number of kimonos that no one wanted to buy. The founder wondered how he could use the unsold copies. While thinking about this problem, they were inspired by aloha shirts featured in a magazine and came up with the idea of ​​turning them into men’s jackets.

The fabric used in the kimono is known to be inelastic, so recycling it was not easy.

But the company’s craftsmen carefully sewed the collar and other curved parts, thereby managing to produce unique products from second-hand kimono.

Far East Fabric sells products mainly online, but also in-store and at department store events in Kitakyushu. It currently has more than 1,300 customers.

The company said its customer base has expanded to include people from traditional entertainment fields such as rakugo and kabuki.

“It is believed that there are 800 million unused kimonos nationwide,” said Hideaki Niijima, board director of Far East Fabric. “We want to boost the markets for recycled goods and convey the meaning of kimono to the rest of the world.”