A charming playful textile shop

“The craftsmanship come from our experiences to our age of 50”

Mixing the personal image of Kyoto and Paris

A man and woman both from Kyoto reunited at the age of 47 since elementary school, and established a company to start the one and only textile brand in the world. Masahiro Okuda and Yuki Nakamura – an unusual collaboration has just begun at a traditional house called machiya, built 150 years ago in Teramachi.

The desire for a variety of challenges had sprouted in the professional’s mind

Masahiro is a textile printing director, which is an unfamiliar job title. He is a professional to pursue how ideally he could print the designers’ art on to the fabric.

He experienced pattern tracing at a Japanese fabric dyeing factory in his 20s and 30s.

“The most important point when printing a cherry blossom flower on a kimono, is the outline. It could easily ruin the whole work.”

When Mackintosh was at dawn in the 1990s, designs were still mainly hand drawn at Kyoto. Masahiro was one of the pioneers to learn digital image processing skills for printing. By the time in his 40s, he started swim suit printing which requires a technology to print vivid colors.

“The first thing to do is to breakdown the design to make it printable. Inkjet printing helps to maximize the expression.”

Despite his professionalism, his work was not very often paid attention as it is a supportive work in designing. “I want to do more out of my work,” when the thought had sprouted in his mind, he was invited to the elementary school reunion.

The scenery of Kitayama from the Kamogawa River

“Wa (Japanese culture)” should not be the only thing about Kyoto

Yuki Nakamura’s father was a Nishijin (high brand silk fabric) tie manufacturer, and her mother was a hand drawing Yuzen (pattering technique) artist.

At the age of 18, Yuki moved to Tokyo. She experienced product planning, window displaying, and coordination, while working as a freelance illustrator. Her Paris inspired illustration became very popular through many commercials and magazines.

She returned to Kyoto at the age of 35 and opened a café and a French goods store named Trico+. She had started to shift her work more to writing books in 2012, when she reunited with Masahiro. Yuki designs the collage, Masahiro prints, and together creates goods using the made fabric and started the one and only textile brand in the world.

“Our very first art work was a collage of the scenery of Kitayama from the Kamogawa River. I don’t want to make a very typical ‘Wa’ tasted design. It needs a bit of playfulness, to mix the taste of ‘Wa’ and Paris. Something that could only be made in Kyoto.”

Both Kamogawa River and Seine River flow through the city, and there are also mountains and historical buildings in Kyoto and Paris. These two cities have many common things in between.

“I want to make the one and only products, using daily scenes or nature as a theme.”

The charming playful textile from Petit A Petit will definitely entertain you.