Also, I was able to meet people with great talent and ability.
From the bottom of my heart, I always want to meet someone like that.
That's why I'm always looking for it, so maybe I have more opportunities to do that than other people.
Meeting someone who could be world class like this doesn't happen often because the absolute number of such people is small in the first place.
However, I think that this encounter was "inevitable".
I've heard stories about "there are people like that", so I've known about them for some time, albeit only a little.
But due to our situation and various external factors, we never crossed paths.
until now.
However, the opportunity came unexpectedly.
During a conversation while walking down the street on a business trip.
There is a physical dimension on both sides and an inner capacity on our side, and what seemed difficult not so long ago now seemed to be the time.
Then, the story progressed in a ton-ton rhythm, and "matching".
And from this time, we will be able to see our customers at our store.
"COTTLE".
Kojima, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture.
yes. Same Okayama prefecture.
"COTTLE".
Mr Watanabe.
As I mentioned earlier, I now believe that my meeting with Mr. Watanabe was "inevitable".
It's a long time ago, but I used to work at a sewing factory before doing CASANOVA&CO.
The factory is divided into the parent company's head office and its own sewing factory. I had a contract.
The so-called OEM.
Many of the current fashion market has a lot of such OEM type production.
I wonder what that is. Sometimes I think, but this time it's not about that story, so I'll leave it there.
The company was doing OEM production of brands that everyone knows and brands that people who like clothes know.
And at that time, I heard from the high-ranking people at the head office that there was once a person named "Watanabe-san" who was extremely talented and active.
I think it would be good if you could think of OEM in terms of clothes as the work of designing what a designer vaguely envisioned and making it a reality.
Maybe it's actually more of a "designer" than a designer.
In fact, there aren't many people in this world who have the ability to be considered "real designers."
I think
The trust from fashion brands must have been strong.
Mr. Watanabe.
Time passed, and this time I visited Kojima, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, where COTLE is based.
It's also close so it's easy to get to.
Along the way, the name "Watanabe-san" suddenly began to flow in my head like a melody.
The person who introduced me to COTTLE told me that someone named "Watanabe-san" was doing COTTLE beforehand. I heard.
At times like this, I feel something close to a "revolution" in my head.
When something wonderful happens, there are such "signs", aren't there?
I wonder if that kind of thing can be expressed as a sixth sense.
I think that feeling is very important to me.
Time to meet for the first time.
Reveal each other's identities.
I think I understand now.
It was that "Watanabe-san".
I was a big senior.
Mode techniques and tailoring elements learned during school days.
Achievements in the industry and connections with brands that are now representative of Japan.
Mr. Watanabe's accumulated experiences are reflected in this COTLE in a very rich and overwhelmingly high level.
Even if the time axis is different, I think that the law of "inquiry" exists in this world, where people are in the same situation and continue to cherish what they believe in.
Is it something like the old saying that everyone knows, "like attracts like"?
To express it in an easy-to-understand manner.
In this way, I live in Okayama Prefecture, meet a person with ideas and talents that not many people have, and now have the opportunity to introduce the clothes that he creates to everyone. .
A building over 130 years old that once existed as a textile factory.
There is a base of COTTLE.
The place has a gallery shop, which is also a space where COTTLE's ideas can be conveyed, and an atelier where imagination and creation are shared on one floor.
When I entered the gallery, perhaps it was just the right timing, and the clothes that I would like to introduce to everyone were all there.
This is part.
We look forward to introducing you to an amazing and terrific line-up in the near future.
And in that corner, there was something that very well represented one of the symbols of COTTLE clothes.
"Kintsugi".
It is said that the technology as we know it today was developed more than 400 years ago.
A technique of gluing cracks and chips in ceramics with lacquer and decorating them with gold.
It fits in one button of every COTTLE garment.
A traditional technique that expresses the ancient Japanese spirit of continuing to use one beautiful thing with care.
Then, to the attached atelier.
The entrance welcomes you with high-quality old wood and a solid earthen wall.
sewing site.
This is just one corner of the space, but many kinds of sewing machines are neatly lined up.
From old to new.
A wide variety of sewing machines for cutting fabric, outputting patterns, and performing complicated and advanced sewing.
It has everything you need to make clothes.
Everything. all.
Moreover, there was even a sewing machine for cut-and-sews, so that was a big surprise.
Dedicated industrial irons and thread stocks of various colors, counts and materials.
I've been to sewing sites myself, and even now I go to various upstream sites across the country, but I've never seen a factory this beautiful, with such a clear atmosphere, and so organized. It was
Mr. Watanabe had a normal expression, but this was a surprising beauty.
Well, I don't think you can tell much from the pictures.
I was very convinced that such a level of clothes could be completed because it was a place that was properly managed and arranged without cutting corners.
Furthermore, next to it, as a showroom? A large space was about to be created to fulfill the function of
It wasn't finished when I went, but it looks like it's finished now.
I myself live in Okayama Prefecture, and it is close to Kojima, the production area.
There are some people who work in Kojima, and there are people who receive various influences and give me energy from such on-site people, but Mr. Watanabe from COTTLE thought it was different.
It is said that Okayama Prefecture (Kojima) = Denim, and it is definitely true, and I think it is the most specialized area in the world.
You can feel it on your skin.
But even though I'm based in such a place, I'm doing things that are not within that scope at all.
Moreover, at a level without Egetsu.
I was overwhelmed by the overwhelming feeling that "There is such a person in Okayama Prefecture."
As I mentioned earlier, the companies we worked for in the past specialized in "denim" and "jeans", just like Kojima's example.
But Mr. Watanabe, of course, has that experience as an element of COTTLE, but he creates clothes in a different world, a realm that not everyone can reach.
I was very curious as to why.
I would like to introduce a little bit later, but this was one of those things.
It seems that Mr. Watanabe made this when he was a student.
It is said that it was made with a peak lapel and a single, equipped with a "hair core" that is also the foundation of men's tailoring, and made with "inside out".
There is also an origin here.
It seems that he knew and pursued the proper tailoring of men's classics.
And at that time, it seems that it was in shape.
Of course, Mr. Watanabe's creation is also injected into this.
Of course, this kind of "Ha-zashi" means that you have to sew by hand in a meaningful "Ha" shape, so naturally it takes time, but the clothes I'm going to introduce to you this time. There are also things that are included.
Mr. Watanabe of COTTLE says that there are many "traditional hand techniques" such as "Hazashi", even for things other than clothes.
The same is true for things called "folk crafts."
Kurashiki City, where COTTLE is located, is also a town of folk crafts, and there is also the Kurashiki Folk Crafts Museum, whose first director was Kichinosuke Tonomura.
The word "folk art" means "people's handicraft" and is said to have been coined by Muneyoshi Yanagi in the Taisho period.
In contrast to arts and crafts whose purpose is to be "appreciated", durable and beautiful items used in people's lives are called "folk crafts".
Objects that we use in our daily lives are endowed with "beauty that is directly linked to their use."
It is said that there is a characteristic of the way of thinking of "folk art" in the place where I thought.
That "hand technique" for "use" is a strong feature of COTTLE clothes.
Mr. Watanabe of COTTLE says, "I want to give shape to what I think."
It is always in Watanabe's mind, and as if expressing it, there is not only a gallery but also an atelier with many sewing machines and tools right next door.
Pattern Cutting Dyeing Sewing We think about the process of making clothes by ourselves, shape it ourselves, and create it as clothes.
In the clothes production process, at the stage of production, there are always small points such as ``Let's do this more'' or ``This way we can make clothes with a higher quality.''
Based on COTTLE's conviction, you can immediately reflect it yourself and give it shape.
In any case, the clothes of COTTLE are completed with the skill and thought of the hand.
Not everything is hand-stitched, and there are many variations of tools such as sewing machines, so the simple and robust side of industrial products is firmly included, but everything is "Watanabe-san's aesthetics". Clothes that reflect.
I think of COTTLE clothes as "handicrafts of thought".
COTTLE -Senkou Suiu-
Incense stick (flashing) Suiyu
"incense"
Feel nostalgic for the time you spent with the deceased when you burn incense, and enjoy a different time than usual, while the smell of incense sharpens your mind.
"flash"
Sparkle and fragility that shines momentarily.
"Midrain"
It means rain falling on fresh greenery, and raindrops resting on lush leaves.
A variety of cycles expressed by using the antonym of the word that turns to ashes when the incense ends and the fresh word of suiyu.
I hope that everyone will be able to see this COTTLE Senkou Suiu.
It is not a regular cycle of clothes, but a make-to-order production method called just-in-time.
The fabric is a transcendent original fabric woven by "Kaneta Orimono".
Using it, it is clothes that are completed in Kojima's atelier.
I am very happy to be able to introduce such clothes in our shop.
I will introduce you later.