In Kiryu City, Gunma Prefecture, which has long flourished as a textile town, there is Kasamori Corporation, a long-established embroidery workshop founded in 1877. In this historic town of high quality fabrics and textiles, Kasamori supports the world’s fashion designers with its embroidery, and continues to take on new challenges, such as its own brand “OOO” (Triple OOO).
Original products created from the fusion of skilled craftsmen and technology
Kiryu City, located in the southeastern part of Gunma Prefecture on the border with Tochigi Prefecture, is known as “the East Kiryu for Kiryu, the West for Shijin” and has a history of prosperity as a textile town since the Nara period (710-794).
Kasamori Co., Ltd. was founded as a weaver of obi belts in this textile town, where the main industry is the traditional craft of Kiryu weaving. With the changing times, the company introduced a Jacquard embroidery machine in 1962 and changed its business from weaving to embroidery. The company has produced a number of high-quality products based on the high technology created by the fusion of skilled craftsmanship cultivated in the textile industry and the technology of embroidery machines using laser cutting and other techniques.
The company’s fourth generation chairman, Yasutoshi Kasahara, is determined to take on challenges with an eye to the future, rather than taking a defensive stance typical of long-established businesses.
Transformation of business from Japanese to Western-style clothing, in line with the changing times
As the times changed, Kasamori’s business was forced to shift from Japanese to Western-style clothing.
The Obi business requires a lot of purchasing, and it is like buying thread and selling it. On the other hand, embroidery requires only a small amount of money to purchase, but it is possible to compete on the basis of technical skill. My father told me at the time that even if sales were small, profits would remain,” Kasahara explained.
When he first started his embroidery business, he embroidered one-point embroidery on socks, and gradually began to work on Japanese and Western-style clothing as well. Slowly but surely, he established his original embroidery technique, and in 2006, he developed his own technique, “Kasamori lace” chain embroidery.
After that, when the company exhibited at exhibitions in Tokyo and Paris, its clothing accessories and embroidered products using its advanced technology attracted much attention, and the company began to receive inquiries from designers and apparel makers in Japan and abroad.
Embroidery supporting the world’s fashion designers behind the scenes
In the 1960s, Kasamori switched to the embroidery business, and at the same time Japanese fashion designers began to appear in Paris.
Issey Miyake, Kenzo Takada, Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, and many others were leading the Japanese fashion industry with their collections in Paris. At that time, while we were working in mass production, we were also working with fashion designers such as Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo, who were gaining worldwide attention.”
Kasamori’s embroidery, which is precision machine embroidery but has the warmth of handmade embroidery, has attracted designers and apparel makers from Japan and abroad. Kasamori’s embroidery, with its precision machine embroidery and handmade warmth, attracted the attention of designers and apparel makers in Japan and abroad, and the company’s technology solved various problems and was valued as a high-quality clothing accessory and embroidery product.
The trust thus fostered has never wavered, and the company continues to do business with popular brands to this day.
He always says, “If you need help with embroidery, call me.”
Kasahara says, “At that time, I always told designers who were looking for advanced techniques, starting with collections, to contact me if they had any problems with embroidery. Then, when they wanted to make something difficult, they would ask me for advice.
When we delivered the product, she was very pleased that it was exactly as she had imagined.”
Kasamori is highly skilled in machine embroidery using a variety of techniques. Kasamori’s greatest strength lies in the fact that the addition of embroidery’s unique diagonal variation to the vertical and horizontal thread movement cultivated in textiles has changed the degree of freedom of thread movement and expanded the possibilities of his work.
More than anyone else, Kasahara enjoys and is amused by the way the direction of the thread and the way the thread is stitched to the embroidery design, and by the way embroidery expression changes depending on the movement of the thread.
Launching your own brand, with your own price
Mr. Kasahara says that when he was actively participating in exhibitions in Paris, he had a memorable business meeting with a world-famous brand with whom he went to the headquarters to talk.
He told me that high brands go out of their way to raise the value of the brand itself by charging high prices and doing lots of promotions in order to increase profits.
Hearing this story, Mr. Kasahara thought that he would not be able to survive in the future if he did not put his own price on what he made. Mr. Kasahara thought that if he did not put his own price on what he made, he would not be able to survive in the future, and he began to think about having his own brand.
After a long period of trial and error, he decided to create his own brand in earnest in 2008. In 2010, he launched his own brand, “OOO,” which he had longed for.
「A new concept of “embroidery freed from cloth
Yoichi Katakura, the current brand manager of “OOO,” was entrusted by Mr. Kasahara with the mission of establishing his own brand after joining Kasamori Corporation in 2005.
I was honestly at a loss when Mr. Kasahara told me that he wanted to create a new value of embroidery that would excite both the creator and the buyer through embroidery. We didn’t know where to start, so we just tried to find our strengths and started by looking for something that would differentiate us from other companies.
Kasamori originally had experience making accessories for a domestic fashion brand on an OEM basis. Mr. Katakura thought that by combining their technical ability to handle difficult embroidery with accessories, they could bring out their strengths.
The idea of “embroidery free from cloth” came to him, and while making various products, he settled on accessories made with thread, which were well received by customers.
Patented spherical accessories
In order to create a completely new option of “thread accessories” for daily wear, Katakura aimed to create something that would make people wonder “how far you can go with just thread.
I wanted to create something made of thread, but that didn’t feel like thread. In order to betray it in a good way, or to eliminate the cheapness unique to thread, if the necessary thread was not sold, we made it ourselves from the thread, and developed the technology while involving local craftsmen.
We decide what we want to make first, and if we don’t have what we need, we take on the challenge from the point of making it. This is the very essence of “OOO,” which creates accessories with free thinking and without being bound by preconceived ideas, and the three tenets of “ideas, materials, and techniques.
The “three-dimensional embroidery” was completed through a fusion of precise programming and craftsmen’s handiwork in order to make jewelry that is closer to real jewelry using only thread. This technique of creating a sphere using only thread is patented by “OOO” and is a major strength of the company.
Technical capabilities to turn the “impossible” into the “possible
Kasamori Lace, in which chain embroidery machines are used to embroider on water-soluble non-woven fabric, and then the non-woven fabric is washed away with hot water, leaving only the threads, is a technique that was arrived at after repeated attempts. It is an original creation only possible with the experience and sensibility of a craftsman who can adjust a sewing machine programmed according to the pattern, even taking into account the temperature and humidity of the day.
When Mr. Katakura wanted to make an accessory like a pearl necklace using only silk thread at “OOO,” he was repeatedly told, “It is absolutely impossible. Nevertheless, he continued to think of ways to make the “impossible” and created a patented manufacturing method that only “OOO” could do. This is where Kasamori’s experience of turning “impossible” into “possible” came in, as he turned to the embroidery business and used his skills to increase profits.
Not only preserving tradition, but also taking on the challenge of creating new value is what will open up the future. Kasahara-san’s vision of co-creating with local craftsmen to create exciting products is the driving force behind Kasamori’s embroidery, and the company will continue to innovate to create original and appealing products like “OOO” for the entire region.