Araisara: The Moment when Water Answers the Wind

This homage to the Japanese couture label araisara was originally published online on Ethical Fashion Japan in July 2012, and is the third of a series of three articles about the label. It is edited and republished with permission.

Author: Ethical Fashion Japan, Twitter: @EthicalJP
Editing: Shirahime
Translation of Poem: Ethical Fashion Japan & Shirahime

「響」	hibiki(Echo)
流れる空気 響く音 伝わる声 伝い広がる意識の波 人から物へ 物から人へ やがて宿る人の思い 止まる事のない命の鼓動 鳴り続ける鼓動の響き 響きから始まる命の鼓動	The flow of the atomosphere. The echo of the sounds. The humming of voices. The awareness that spreads like a wave. From people to things. From things to people. Before long, the thoughts and emotions of those who stay over. The heartbeat of Life that never ends. The sound of Life that echoes forever. And from the echo, starts the hearbeat of Life.

This time, let us introduce Araisara’s 2010 S/S Collection, ‘Hibiki’ (Echo in Japanese)”
When the collection was launched in 2010, it contained the following message: Anything in the world that has an effect comes from an original action by someone else. Without action, nothing spreads. Hence, ‘let’s make action happen‘.

What made Sara Arai think about this was the death of the women the designer calls her “Granny”, and who, for 17 years, sewed her pieces for me. Granny sewed her haute couture pieces, private orders from my customers, and samples of private label products for luxury manufacturers. In Araisara’s debut collection, there were many pieces that were mostly completed by Granny.
Granny passed away after the 2008 Japan Fashion Week (JFW) debut collection, and Araisara’s second collection was inspired by her: by how she put her feelings into the clothes and what happened to those feelings that remain in this way with the clothes.

During the 17 years of working with her, Granny never mailed the finished clothing. She always delivered them herself. She was very sincere to customers; she wanted to be responsible for the product to the very last moment — until it was certain that the responsibility had been handed on to the designer. Whenever she received an order, she always came to Araisara’s atelier and heard the description of the order in person; they two of them would then go over the specification documents together.
Granny usually worked from her home, so she rarely went outside. Whenever she came to the atelier, she was dressed very nicely. Always with a hat on on her head. She would tell Araisara: “Because I don’t go out so often, it’s really my pleasure to come here to see Mei-san.”. But that was probably not her only reason. For her, delivering customers’ clothing was such an important thing; so she dressed up nicely and carefully brought the clothing to the studio. Making a delivery was an important part of her creations.

Granny was diagnosed with cancer four or five years before Araisara’s 2008 debut collection was released. However, she strongly wished to be part of the debut collection, so Araisara commissioned her to make some of the collection pieces.
Granny came to see to the debut runway show, and right after it ended, she immediately called the designer. She was very excited because all the guest customers who sat around her had been wearing clothing that she had made with her own hands: “On my left, there sat a lady in a purple jacket that I had sewn, and on my right, she wore a dress from few years ago ...The suit that person in front of me was wearing was also one that I made ” She remembered everything she had ever made.

Granny passed away soon after the 2008 JFW debut collection, but Araisara was unable to be with her in her last moments. Rather than seeing her ill, she strongly wished the designer to see her only after she was cremated and her portrait was displayed. Thus, she told her son not to tell me which hospital she was in. She told her son that since she always dressed up when going to see the designer, it would be embarrassing for her to have the designer see her like that. She told him to let Araisara know when her portrait was ready.

She also left her son a message for Araisara. It went something like this:
“Mei-san, you let me work on your clothing that would be sold at department stores, and you let me work on private order items. I was able to see customers wearing these clothes at the runway show. In the end, I was also able to work on your collection pieces, which have a message to deliver and that everyone sees. I was able to see the collection. My life was very happy, and it was all for you.”

Because she had a beautiful life and she was grateful for it, Araisara’ thinks she wanted her only to see her when she appeared beautiful.
Although Granny is gone now, customers still wear her clothes. There are photographs of the debut collection, so anyone can see the clothes Granny made, even now. Many of the people do not know her name or the fact that she lived. However, the clothing gained form because she of her. When seeing clothes made by her, someone will be inspired. By cherishing her clothes, someone might alter them after they have become worn, and wear them again in another form. Her life will’echo‘ and be passed on and on by people: the people who saw the collection and the people who wear her clothes.

This said, the sheer fact that she lived is already a big enough action to start something new. Although the original form of the action, that is, life, has disappeared, the evidence of her existance will continue to influence other people.

When it comes to traditional techniques, masterpieces may die out as time passes and people’s taste change. But designers can alter the techniques in a way that integrates well with modern style, which is what the brand Araisara is trying to do. And even though the techniques may change over time, there will always be aspects that stay the same and that can, must, be passed on.
With that in mind, it was with the ‘Hibiki’ collection that Araisara promised herself to keep going.

Araisara says that “Sumi-Nagashi (Ink-Marbling)” was the traditional technique I encountered when preparing for the Hibiki collection. This was my first time using this technique, but when I first saw it, I felt that it reflected what I have been thinking about. You place a drop of ink in water and then you drop another to different spot. As the ink spreads on the surface of the water, the two collide and the ink forms a stream by echoing each other. However, it is not water that spreads the ink: even though you don’t feel it, there’s a wind that makes the water move. Thus, artisans called the streams of the marbling 'design by the wind'. When a strong wind hits the water, it creates a big ripple and the patterns are dynamic. I believed that the water was responding to the artisan—that it feels the artisan’s wind. And so I started thinking, when there is any kind of action, there is always a response in some way."

Sumi-nagashi is a method of dyeing that records the moment that water answers the wind.　It records the moment that the action of each ink effects each other. Usually, Araisara attempts to do new things with traditional techniques, but for Sumi-nagashi, she decided she wouldn’t try anything new, but would simply make a beautiful dress with the fabric.

Video: Sumi-Nagashi demonstrated by Fukui Prefecture’s ‘intangible cultural asset’ Tadao Ando.

A Sumi-nagashi artisan once asked Araisara an interesting question; “What is the difference between a professional artisan and amateur artisan?”
Araisara thought that artisans say the designs of Sumi-nagashi are formed as a result of an accidental effect of natural elements affecting each other. However, artisans must fulfill the requests of designers and clients, so how can you fulfill requests from uncertainty?

However, the artisan then gave her this own answer: Professional artisans understand what might happen under certain conditions, and they make what they want to happen by arranging the desirable conditions. For example, artisans know how the ripples move when sending the wind in a certain direction. So they send the wind in a way that makes the water respond how they want.

There’s wind and there’s water. They are so silent that you may not be aware of them usually. However, they surely exist. The result of how each element echoed each other was printed on the fabric. Araisara was impressed by the process because it is certainly different from digital prints or any other design technique she is aware of.

About Sumi-Nagashi Dye (Ink-Marbling Dye)
Sumi-nagashi is one of the oldest methods of dyeing in Japan, dating back to the Heian period (794–1185). On the surface of water, artisans drop black ink/dye and create a copy of the colored streamlines and ripples on paper/fabric. It is the result of the unexpected effect of wind, water, clouds, temperature, and time on each other.