I was one of the 8 featured designers at this special fashion show during Vogue Knitting Live (VKL) 2023 in New York City!
I designed two garments for the show. In another post, I wrote about Kajitsu Kimono Robe. In this post, I’d like to present you Harmony Haori Jacket.
On the front bands read the word “Musashi (武蔵).” Musashi was a province of Japan (7th century – 16th century), which now comprises Tokyo and my hometown Saitama, and a little bit of Kanagawa prefecture. In Japan, it is common to have a name of your team / organization / origin city printed on the front bands of your jacket. I am proud to announce to the world I’m Team MUSASHI. Interestingly, the name also include USA, where I live now.
These bands were double knitted (two-pattern) so you can read the same characters on the back side of the jacket as well.
On the back side of the jacket reads Heiwa (平和), which means Harmony / Peace in Japanese. I stylized the characters with multiple arrows pointing different directions – illustrating diversity and forward-thinking. This area was knitted using the ladder-back jacquard method (a type of stranded knitting).
The alternating 3-line pattern is known as San-Kuzushi (三崩し), or Three-Tumbled. It worked as a great background to the jacket body.
The underarm panels show another traditional Japanese pattern called Tate Waku (立涌), or Rising Steam. The lower part of the panel is double-knitted, and then the front and back side of the panel were separated and knitted individually on the upper part using stranded knitting, making a hole for the arms.
Universal Yarn was very kind to provide their Deluxe Worsted yarn for this piece. The solid and thick yarn well represented my wish for a peaceful world.
You can see the entire clip of the runway show from the link on On the Media page.
Duke of Nikko 