ATON COLOR®
23FW is a rich gradation of brown cashmere, dotted with beautiful oranges and items.
The color palette is like magma erupting from a crater and flowing to the surface of the earth, evoking the overwhelming power of the earth. During my frequent visits to Shigaraki in Shiga Prefecture over the past few years, I became interested in Shigaraki ware and came across a book on old Shigaraki ware, "Shigaraki Old Vase Taisei.
The book is a compilation of old Shigaraki pots, which can be considered the origin of the Japanese sense of beauty. I was strongly inspired by the simple and warm texture of the clay and the beauty of the various orange and brown patterns, which are characterized by the temperature at the time of firing and other factors, as if they were one with the earth, and composed my collection in various tones of brown and orange.
For materials, collegiate flannel, fleece, knitwear, and jersey were completed with the finest cotton-like wool that has been tested over the years, and the collection ranges from wool coats that can be worn on the bare skin to dresses, pullovers, and T-shirts. Also, we have completed nubuck-processed silk, a new technology developed in Kyoto, which is an original EIGHTON process characterized by the drape it creates when worn.
In design, we are developing new cotton outerwear using Swiss wool (women's) and recycled cashmere (men's) instead of down, which we have been researching. This season, the women's line is more feminine, while offering couture dress styles in non-formal materials such as cashmere knitwear, wool, and cotton jersey. The men's lineup will also be enhanced.
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BOTANICAL DYE SERIES
NAME | Camellia japonica
SCIENTIFIC NAME | Camellia japonica
COLOR | PINK
The origin of the word "Camellia japonica" is said to be "Tsubaki" because of its glossy leaves, or "Atsuhaki" because of its thick leaves, and the first letter "A" is said to have been read from the word "a".
NATURAL DYED URAKE | C/PINK
NAME | Yuri
SCIENTIFIC NAME | LILIUM
COLOR | OFF WHITE
Lilies are widely popular in Japan, where they come from, including mountain lilies and tephoylilies, as well as many garden varieties produced through crossbreeding. The lilies, which can be enjoyed in a variety of variations, add color to the garden in summer.
natural dyed wool
NAME | Mulberry
SCIENTIFIC NAME | Morus
COLOR | GREEN
Chestnut is the general name for the genus Morus of the mulberry family. There are many varieties, such as the Yamagiwa and the Shimaguwa. It has been an important crop for silkworms since ancient times and is also used as a fruit tree.
NATURAL DYED URAKE | C/DARK GREEN
ORGANIC NUBUK COTTON | C/GREEN
NAME | Cymbidium
SCIENTIFIC NAME | Cymbidium
COLOR | PINK
Cymbidiums have an orchid-like pulp from which long, slender leaves grow in a sedentary fashion. The flowers emerge from the base of the bulbs, and are either solitary or borne grossly, but most orchids treated as Western orchids have many flowers.
NAME｜Logwood
SCIENTIFIC NAME | HAEMATOXYLUM CAMPECHIANUMCOLOR|BLACK / NAVY / GREEN / CHARCOAL
An evergreen tree of the Fabaceae family native to Mexico and South America. It is said to purge evil spirits and was used as a dye for Buddhist robes.
It is said to have been used to dye Napoleon's coat, Admiral Nelson's jacket, and pirates' clothes. It is also used for dyeing black, and is a plant used for the ease of lining clothes.
SILK VELVET | C/CHARCOALNATURAL DYED WEATHER | C/BLACKNATURAL DYED WOOL |C/BLACK
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
NAME | Bamboo charcoal
SCIENTIFIC NAME | Bamboo charcoal
COLOR | GRAY
Charcoal is the artificial carbonization of something.
Unlike charcoal, which is mainly used as fuel, charcoal is often used for auxiliary functions in daily life.
SILK VELVET | C/GRAY
ORGANIC NUBUCK COTTON
NAME | Hinoki (Japanese cypress)
SCIENTIFIC NAME | Chamaecyparis obtusa
COLOR |BEIGE
Hinoki has been treated as the best material to guide "fire" and "day," from which the words "fire" and "day" have been derived since ancient times.
It has various advantages such as being relatively soft and easy to work, having a good yield rate due to its straight trunk, and having high resistance to decay.
NATURAL DYED WEATHER | C/WARM WHITE
NAME|YAMABUKI
SCIENTIFIC NAME | Kerria japonica
COLOR | BURGUNDY
Yamabuki is said to have been written as "yamaburi" in ancient times. It is said that the name "yamaburi" comes from the thin, flexible branches that sway in the wind.
NATURAL DYED URAKE | C/BURGUNDY
NAME | Walnut
SCIENTIFIC NAME | Juglans
COLOR | BROWN
Originally from Iran, China, Japan and North America, walnut trees are widely distributed in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere.
Most walnuts native to the Japanese archipelago are onigurumi, which are very hard and the seeds are difficult to extract.
NATURAL DYED WOOL | C/BROWN
ATON COLOR®
Our contemporary processes for making clothing all derive from techniques handed down from craftspeople that were refined over the ages. But our modern obsession with efficiency has caused us to neglect many splendid techniques of ntiquity, and little by little, they are being lost. And once lost, they can never be revived. That is precisely why ATON is working at the moment to preserve and evangelize small manufacturers and factories in Japan who continue to use rare and valuable production methods. We work closely with these craftsmen to try out new ideas and make beautiful clothes.
As just one example, let us look at dyeing techniques. Fabrics dyed with natural dyes possess a stunning depth of color, which we call botanical colors. These intricately layered colors are full of astounding beauty and have a unique ability to captivate the human senses at an almost primal level.
Botanical Dye
Natural colors are layered, which means they include wavelengths of light outside the range of human vision. Yet these “invisible colors” are critical for creating a depth of beauty. Keisuke Hishikawa, the founder of Cihon Tec in the Sendagaya neighborhood of Tokyo, came to this conclusion after 20 years of research into natural dyeing.
Even the most simple, standalone color is an expression of overlapping hues. This is why Hishikawa stocks 3,000 varieties of natural raw materials, such as leaves, stems, bark, fruit peels, ores, and the flowers of plants. He also maintains an archive of tens of thousands of dyes extracted from various natural raw materials, from the sakaki (Cleyera japonica) trees in the inner shrine of Ise Jingu to
the sasa broad-leaf bamboo of Mt. Omine in Nara Prefecture. Producing identical colors through multiple dyes of natural materials is extremely difficult, but Cihon Tec can achieve the same colors each time thanks to digitizing its recipes.
Indigo
Traditionally it was prohibited for craftsmen to take Ryukyu indigo out of Okinawa. The first person allowed to do so was the late Yuzen craftsmen, Keiichi Yoshikawa, who brought Ryukyu indigo to Kyoto after repeated training in Okinawa. The resulting Ryukyu indigo feels very modern, much different than that produced in Okinawa, thanks to the purity of Kyoto water. (Kyoto has even been called “the city above a water jug.”)
To make indigo dye, craftsmen extract a solution from the fermentation of naturally dried indigo leaves. They call this process "building the indigo," once it takes on a reddish foam known as "indigo flowers," it’s ready for hand-dyeing garments. When fabrics
first emerge from the dye, they take on a yellow tint, but once oxidized in the air, they transform into their signature blue color. By varying the number of dips into the dye, 48 separate shades of indigo can be created: kamenozoki "pot peering” light blue, mizuiro light blue, hanada purple-blue, onando dark cyan, ai indigo, tetsukon navy blue, and katsuiro deep blue. By using Mr. Yoshikawa’s techniques, craftsmen in Kameoka, Kyoto continue to dye indigo by hand and convey the beauty of Ryukyu indigo in each piece.
Logwood
In the past, the only available material for black dye was logwood. It was used, for example, to produce the black in Napoleon’s legendary wool coat. This rare Mexican tree was so in demand that wars even broke out over access to it.
To dye things black with logwood while preserving the firmness and luster of high-density woven linen requires a primitive technique called jigger dyeing. There is a factory for jigger dyeing in Hanyū, Saitama Prefecture that has been operating continuously for 140 years.
The factory wraps linen cloth around a roller and then rotates that around another roller to let it pass through dyeing liquid extracted from the logwood. After the first winding, the cloth is rotated in the reverse direction and again rolled through the dyeing solution. Since the dyeing occurs while the fabric is stretched out, the fabric takes on a glossiness and luster that cannot be obtained by other dyeing methods, such as rubbing in the color. Black may appear to be monochromatic, but garments only become black from emitting a wide variety of colors through the reflection of light.
Anthurium
Anthurium is an herb found in the area between the tropical regions of America and the West Indies. The reddish leaves, called butsuenhō, which wrap the buds like petals, produce a red dye that turns fabric a bright pale pink.
We dye sweatshirts in anthurium, but doing this without damaging the thickness and density of the cotton fabric requires a technique called paddle dyeing. In Koishikawa, Tokyo, there is a dyeing factory that has practiced paddle dyeing for nearly 110 years. Here the sweatshirts are dyed as if they are swimming in the dye. The fabric never touches the machine directly, nor rubs against other fabric, which is key to preserving the texture of the fabric. When dyeing finished garments, there is no unevenness in the color, even in areas near the stitches, which makes it look like they were sewn from pre-dyed fabric.
The sweatshirts are dried naturally without using an industrial dryer, which ensures the integrity of the thick cotton fabric.