Isezaki-Kasuri Weaving

In the Gumma prefecture, resides the Sadao family, the last living family that carries the tradition of Isezaki-Kasuri weaving. We spent an afternoon with Mr. Sadao as he walked us through the meticulous process of creating this handcrafted fabric. Named after the city of Isezaki itself, Isezaki-Kasuri (Kasuri meaning a splashed pattern) is a plain weave using silk thread also known as Isezaki-Meisen.

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平織り: Hira-ori or Plain weave is the simplest and most common of textile weaves. It is also known as the Tabby weave. The filling threads and the warp threads interlace alternately, forming a checkboard pattern. These plain fabrics are woven with pre-dyed silk threads, keeping the characteristics of silk. They are woven manually with various techniques ranging from simple splash patterns to more complicated splash patterns.

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Silk textiles have been woven here for centuries due to a flourishing silkworm industry. Approximately 250 years ago, the area became busy enough for a city to be established, and textiles were shipped to Edo (now Tokyo) on boats via Tone-gawa River. Although Isezaki owed its growth to textiles, demand for textiles declined drastically as woolen and silk/wool mix kimono fabrics became more popular. Isezaki-Kasuri weaving was designated a traditional craft in 1975.

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                                         The unassuming entrance of the Isezaki-Kasuri workshop where the fabrics are produced.

 Author: Aruña Quiroga

Tokyo Dyed Komon or Tokyo Some Komon

At Faburiq, we search Japan for centuries old traditions in fabric making. In our recent trip to Japan, we had the chance and privilege to meet Atsushi Tomita and his son, Takashi Tomita, whose family has been manufacturing Komon kimono fabrics since 1914. Located in the Shinjuku-ku area of Tokyo, their family run factory lies on the upper stream of River Kanda where there is ample supply of neutral river water essential for dye works. Komon means "small repeated patterns" and dyed Komon goes back to the Muromachi period (1333 - 1573) where the samurai class began to use them as daily clothes. In the Edo period (1603 - 1868), Komon was used for kamishimo, the samurai's formal wear. Each samurai family has it's own pattern and the pattern was only unique to one family. As each family competitively created original designs and techniques, dyed Komon eventually developed into a form of craft. Today, Komon dyeing has been adopted into ordinary life. The modern and sophisticated Komon kimono with a 600-year tradition is mostly worn for tea parties and chic casual today.

The process of Edo Komon are divided broadly into 5 steps:

• Designing the template and pattern carving. Groups of most skilled pattern-carvers from Ise, modern Mie prefecture, have been specializing in this demanding task for more than a thousand years, probably since the Heian period.

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• Coloring Adjustment and Paste Mixing. Powdered glutinous rice and rice bran are mixed with water to make a soft dough. The dough is steamed and kneaded with the required dye solution until it looks like paste. Dyes are tested carefully on cloths until the right shade is found. "Ji-iro-nori" is the paste for the area outside the pattern and "Me-iro-nori" is the paste for the pattern itself.

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• Katatsuke or Pattern Dyeing.  The pattern is placed on a white silk cloth on a long board and the "Me-iro-nori" is spread evenly. The patterned cloth is then dried in the sun.

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• Shigoki or Field Dyeing. When the paste is completely dried, colored paste is spread evenly on the cloth so that it covers the whole cloth. This step is called "Shigoki".  Sawdust is sprinkled over the paste-covered cloth to prevent it from adhering to other sheets of cloth.

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• Finishing which involves steaming, washing and drying. Before the coloring paste dries out, the cloth is put into a steam box for 15 to 30 minutes at 90 too 100 degrees Celsius. This process allows the dye contained in the paste to permeate evenly into the cloth. Until 1963, dyed fabric has been washed in the river Kanda. But now, underground water has been used to splash the paste off the cloth with a machine. Lastly, the cloth is spread onto a board to dry, and then smoothed out with steam and iron.

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The Shinjuku dyers along the River Kanda have played a big part in Tokyo's busy kimono industry since the beginning of Japan's modernization. Tokyo became one of Japan's three main production centers of kimonos, with Kyoto and Kanazawa. In recent years, many tradesmen in the Tokyo dyeing industry have been designated as Masters of Traditional Crafts under Japanese laws for preserving traditional crafts. The visit served as a perfect opportunity to scout for new fabrics and get inspired. Shop culture, shop Faburiq.

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Author: Aruña Quiroga

Wabi-sabi: Embracing the Worn and Asymmetrical

What if, instead of fighting imperfection, you welcomed it in your life?

Believe it or not, this is the foundation of a very old way of thinking. The Japanese concept of wabi-sabi means "impermanent, imperfect and incomplete." It derives from the Buddhist way of looking at the world, which has a foundation in nonattachment, and takes its cues from the natural world and authenticity, from the handmade and the worn.

Popularized in 15th century Japan, it is a reaction to excess and lavishness. As a designer, I think of it as the anti-internet, and a similar aesthetic is undercurrent in all types of design today. Currently, it's a reaction to the sleek perfection of technology, of the cookie-cutter house or car, the bland design of corporate logos and mass-produced retail goods.

Wabi-sabi is the Japanese idea of embracing the imperfect, celebrating the worn, the used or the cracked, both as a decorative and spiritual concept. In essence, it's the acceptance of the toll that life takes on us all. If we can learn to love the things that already exist, for all their chips and cracks, their imperfections, their crooked lines or tactile evidence of being made by someone's hands instead of a machine, from being made of natural materials that vary rather than perfect plastic, we wouldn't need to make new stuff, reducing our consumption, its concurrent energy use and inevitable waste while cutting our budgets. We might also be less stressed, and more attentive to details, which are the keys to mindfulness.

At Faburiq, we design knowing our fabrics have an implied history and evidence of humanity. We have an appreciation of the stories old things have, rather than the blankness that new things shine out into the world. We pride ourselves in giving these traditional fabrics a new life by crafting them into accessories and apparel with yet, another story to tell.

Author: Aruña Quiroga

Give Thanks, Be Thankful and Waste Nothing

Happy Thanksgiving from Faburiq!

Faburiq lives by the values of Mottainai - that the old can be made new and everything can be given life again. Faburiq's pieces are fabrics that have been saved and reused, so you can give them another history and chapter in it's life. Thank you to our customers and for giving us the opportunity to serve you.  Have a very Happy Thanksgiving 2014!

Author: Aruña Quiroga

Studio Visit: STIL Now!

When one thinks of a curated, creative lifestyle encompassing health, well-being and personal style, Betty Riaz embodies all of these.  Through her work as a yoga practitioner, her boutique at Stil Studio, and now teaming up with fine jewelry designer, Ana Katarina Vinkler-Petrovic, to curate Boston's newest pop-up store Stil Now, on Boston’s famed Newbury Street. Scouring the globe for unique, handpicked, sustainable and stylish items, Stil Now, with its eclectic mix of designers, is a blueprint for a balanced, international lifestyle. As dear friends, Betty invited me to share Faburiq’s international elegance with Stil Now, and I am honored to have Stil Now carry Faburiq pocket squares. 

As a huge follower of designers that Stil has previously carried, we're thrilled Stil Now has brought back some of it's old favorites such as Hoss, Nirva, Ottod'Ame and Escentric Molecules. For this holiday season, Stil Now is featuring Balkan designers, notably Ana-Katarina Jewelry, Portmanteau, Amna and Milansenic. A host of designers for men's accessories and home goods such as Beacon Hill Bow Tie Club and Miraggio Pillows are also being featured. The space is just as one would imagine - minimal, serene, foreign but homely, like a living space that has manifested from the streets of Pakistan to the clean cuts and coziness of Copenhagen.

If you are in the Boston area be sure to visit Stil Now on Newbury St this Holiday season, and thank you to Betty, Ana-Katarina and the Stil crew so much for carrying Faburiq!

Author: Aruña Quiroga

Holiday Gifting Solved with Shades of Blue

Pocket Squares are handy and stylish. Great to dress up any pocket - suit pocket, pant pocket, jean pocket, shirt pocket, even a ladies pocket....get one of these cool kasuri cotton blues to add to your stocking stuffers! Also available now at Stil Now on Newbury Street!

Author: Aruña Quiroga

Faburiq is now available at STIL NOW on Newbury Street!

Faburiq's pocket squares are now available at STIL NOW's pop up store this November and December 2014! Serving both Men's and Women's fashion needs, kick start your holiday shopping with some serious style and get a square at 304 Newbury Street in Boston!

Author: Aruña Quiroga

Inspired by Seigaiha 青海波

The new packaging for Faburiq is here! Seigaiha 青海波 literally means "blue wave of the sea". The double circle patterns resembling ocean waves around the label is not only found on fabrics but on packaging and pottery. This pattern has been used as a clothing motif in Japan for more than a thousand years and also used on ancient Chinese maps to illustrate seawater. The pattern originated from Middle Eastern culture and was introduced to Japan through China around the 11th century.

Just as blue ocean waves are the movement and the current of changing tides, such is life itself, always in motion and a journey. For me, the blue color conveys a sense of calmness and tranquility while the waves represents motion. An ideal combination whilst not always easy to accomplish, but is perfect as packaging for something truly special.

Author: Aruña Quiroga