2025 AW
One element of Japan’s spiritual culture is basara (transgressive excess).
This aesthetic is in stark contrast to Japan’s
well-known wabi-sabi
aesthetic and symbolizes the rebellious spirit
that exists within extreme beauty.
Never following the past and always taking on new challenges,
Kansai Yamamoto lived a life that embodied the spirit of basara,
and his creations live on under the KANSAIMAN brand.
For those whose live a life of modern basara, we offer a collection
of jackets and other items that blend Japan’s supreme skills and art.
Most of the jackets and other items are made by
artisans of Kiryu City, a textile city that has provided behind-the-scenes
support for Japanese fashion since the 1960s.
Jointly created by artisans and artists, the KANSAIMAN collection reveals
once again the skills of these textile industry artisans to the world,
which is precisely the desired brand identity.
Expressing Japan’s artisan culture, something quiet valuable in this era,
as a critical design element, KANSAIMAN is not merely clothing but
embodies the value of Japanese culture.
KIRYU A City Supporting Mode
There are few places in the world like Kiryu City in Gunma Prefecture. Because of its more than thousand-year history with textiles, this city,
which occupies an area only two square kilometers large, boasts a cluster of almost all industries related to clothing manufacturing, including
weaving, knitting, dying, embroidery, processing, and sewing, and has served as a vital production base that supports Japanese fashion.
The masterful skills of each and every Kiryu artisan acquired over the long history of the city is an important element
that makes Kansai Yamamoto’s creations possible.
Kiryu City’s textile industry, one of Japan’s treasures, faces several crises—a decline in the overall industry and
shortage of successors for existing businesses—but we have launched efforts to address these issues.
Our goal is to help broadly communicate the skills that Kiryu artisans possess and help link those artisan skills and Kiryu’s industries to the future
by once again offering the world sukajan, souvenir jackets styled from bomber jackets, created by Kiryu artisans under the KANSAI brand.
The yokoburi embroidery certified traditional artisan Kiyomi Osawa has played a key role in this work.
Kiyomi Osawa Yokoburi Embroidery Artisan
By freely controlling the width of the sliding needle and moving the cloth stretched on a round frame in all directions, she sews various objects
using only thread, as if she were drawing a picture. Kiyomi Osawa is a master craftsman who has elevated embroidery to
the level of art by making full use of a special machine called the “Yokoburi machine” (horizontal sewing machine).
In addition to numerous original works that are three-dimensional and full of dynamism—such as portraits of celebrities, animals, and plants
that are hard to believe were created using only thread—her gorgeous embroidery also adorns the collections of famous fashion designers, and
these works have amazed people around the world.
She is the first embroidery artisan to be designated as a Contemporary Master Craftsman (1994)
and to be awarded the Medal of Honor with Yellow Ribbon (1996).
BACKGROUND
Proof that Japanese beauty is understood
throughout the world
Kansai Yamamoto, a fashion designer who made his debut in
1971, was the first Japanese to hold a fashion show in London.
His pursuit of the Japanese esthetic
of basara (transgressive excess), leading types of Japanese
entertainment such as kabuki and festivals, and
Japanese traditional culture and techniques, including
ukiyo-e, Japanese wood prints, minzokuga (folk paintings),
embroidery, and traditional aizome (indigo dying), has been sublimated into the Kansai style.
He is recognized as a global fashion designer.
His sensational, avant-garde designs that smash
preconceptions gave birth to original works that meld fashion
and human power and won the overwhelming support of
young people sensitive to the times and numerous artists
who were icons of that time.