tomo kishida
Sakiori and Cyclical Textile Artistry
Über tomo kishida
Founded in Osaka in 2018 by Tomohiro Kishida, tomo kishida is an experimental Japanese fashion project built around an unusually direct relationship between maker, material and garment.
Kishida came to clothing from outside the conventional fashion system. After studying architecture at university and graduate school, he worked as an engineer while learning garment construction at Vantan Design Institute. Upon completing the course, he left his engineering career, used his severance pay to purchase a loom and began developing tomo kishida as an independent practice.
At the centre of the project is a rejection of speed and distance in contemporary clothing production. Kishida approaches making as a deliberately slow physical process, taking responsibility for stages that fashion normally distributes across farms, textile mills, pattern makers and factories. Sewing, weaving and material production become part of the design itself, leaving irregularities, variations in texture and traces of labour visible in the finished garments.
This philosophy is developed through two principal projects. uni iroikas works with sakiori, the traditional Japanese practice of tearing old cloth into strips and weaving it into new textiles. Historically developed as a way of extending the life of scarce fabric, Kishida applies the technique to contemporary material excess, transforming discarded garments and unwanted textiles into dense, highly individual surfaces.
LAND TO SKIN pushes the idea of authorship considerably further. Kishida cultivates cotton himself and follows the material through harvesting, ginning, carding, spinning, warping and weaving before pattern cutting and sewing the final garment. Clothing is understood from its agricultural origin onwards, collapsing the usual distance between the field, textile and body.
Kishida describes these activities as personal experiments rather than exercises in efficiency. Time is fundamental to the work: the growing season of cotton, the repetitive labour of spinning and weaving, and the physical process of constructing a garment all become embedded in the object. The resulting pieces carry the irregularity inherent in materials and processes controlled by hand rather than industrial standardisation.
Within contemporary Japanese fashion, tomo kishida occupies a particularly uncompromising position. Its significance lies as much in the method as in the resulting clothes. By returning to discarded cloth on one side and the cultivation of fibre on the other, Kishida examines what it means to make clothing when virtually every stage of modern fashion has become detached from the person who ultimately designs it.
tomo kishida Wissensdatenbank
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Wer ist tomo kishida?
tomo kishida ist ein experimentelles japanisches Mode- und Textilprojekt, das 2018 von Tomohiro Kishida in Osaka gegründet wurde. Die Praxis erforscht Kleidung durch Handweberei, sakiori, Materialwiederverwendung und hochgradig manuelle Produktionsprozesse.
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Who is the designer behind tomo kishida?
tomo kishida was founded by Japanese designer and textile artist Tomohiro Kishida. Before establishing the project, Kishida studied architecture, worked as an engineer and later studied garment construction at Vantan Design Institute.
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Where is tomo kishida based?
tomo kishida was founded in Osaka, Japan. Kishida’s work is closely connected to Japanese textile traditions, particularly sakiori, while approaching them through contemporary questions of waste, production and material value.
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What is tomo kishida known for?
tomo kishida is best known for handwoven textiles, sakiori and an unusually direct approach to garment production. Kishida works with discarded clothing and textiles while also exploring the opposite end of the material cycle by growing, harvesting, spinning and weaving cotton himself.
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What is sakiori?
Sakiori is a traditional Japanese weaving technique in which worn or discarded cloth is torn into narrow strips and woven into new fabric. Historically, the technique extended the useful life of valuable textiles. Kishida applies this principle to contemporary textile waste, creating dense, irregular surfaces from existing materials.
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What is uni iroikas?
uni iroikas is a tomo kishida project centred on sakiori and the transformation of unwanted clothing and textiles into new woven material. The name itself reflects the project’s cyclical logic: “sakiori” written backwards becomes “iroikas.”
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What is LAND TO SKIN?
LAND TO SKIN is Kishida’s project exploring clothing production from its agricultural origin. He cultivates cotton and carries the material through harvesting, ginning, carding, spinning, warping and weaving before cutting and sewing it into a finished garment.
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Are tomo kishida garments handmade?
Handwork is fundamental to tomo kishida. Depending on the project, Kishida undertakes processes including preparing reclaimed cloth, spinning yarn, weaving textiles, pattern cutting and sewing. LAND TO SKIN extends this involvement as far back as cultivating the cotton itself.
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Is tomo kishida sustainable?
Sustainability is inherent in many of Kishida’s methods, particularly the reuse of discarded textiles through sakiori and his examination of complete material cycles. However, describing tomo kishida simply as a sustainable fashion brand misses much of the work: Kishida uses these processes to investigate labour, time, material value and the relationship between maker and clothing.
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What makes tomo kishida different from conventional fashion brands?
The project deliberately reduces the distance between designer and production. Processes normally divided between agriculture, spinning mills, textile manufacturers and garment factories can become part of Kishida’s own practice. The resulting garments retain the irregularities and physical evidence of their making.
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Does tomo kishida collaborate with other designers?
Yes. Kishida has worked with Japanese label T.T on sakiori projects that transform vintage and surplus textiles into newly woven material, extending his textile practice through collaborative garment and art projects.
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Where can I buy tomo kishida?
tomo kishida is produced on a highly limited scale and is not distributed like a conventional fashion label. Availability can vary between individual projects, collaborations and selected presentations. The designer’s official channels are the best source for current releases and availability.
