It’s a completely new approach to adding strength to materials inspired by the ancient Japanese art of sashiko.

The Japanese tradition of mending clothing with sashiko stitching was a brilliant example of how a sustainable approach to clothing could actually improve the clothes at the same time.  Sashiko was used to keep farmers warm, fishermen dry, and make firemen’s coats thicker. So we wanted to explore whether this stitching technique, which creates very strong repairs, could be applied to a whole garment as a way of building in durability from the very start of its lifespan. Our Sashiko Jacket is soft and extremely comfortable to wear, but with 5.5km of meta-aramid fibre stitching, it’s also tough and hard-wearing at the same time.

A long, sharp sashiko needle was sometimes referred to as a ‘magic wand.’ A tool that could not only save a piece of clothing, but make it more beautiful at the same time. Grey or white stitches against an indigo blue background were the classic sashiko combination, sometimes recalling blue mountains covered in snow, or the whitecaps on The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

The traditional geometric patterns of sashiko included arrows, lightning and bamboo as popular motifs. Our stitching pattern is based on the Vollebak ‘V’. The engineered embroidery follows the body contours, with the stitching denser towards the hem of the jacket, and sparser at the elbows. This maximises movement and strengthens the areas where it’s needed most.

The jacket comes with a high wrap around kimono-style neck reinforced with 5 lines of stitching, a 6cm collar, darted shoulders, and a 3-piece sleeve construction that moves just like your arm does. The cuffs and hem are also reinforced with 5 lines of stitching. And to build the jacket we worked with a mill that’s been supplying Japan with state-of-the-art cotton for more than 120 years.

High strength, flame-retardant aramid fibres are conventionally used to make clothing worn by military personnel, firefighters and industrial workers whose lives depend on protection against fires and electrical arcs. While we’ve used these materials to make some of our other ultra-tough clothing before, we’re pretty sure our Sashiko Jacket is the first time that a single piece of clothing has been reinforced with 1 million meta-aramid stitches.

Garbage was almost non-existent in the Edo period. They didn’t just recycle and reuse. They understood that everything had a value and that living happily and within their means was a virtue. Repair and reuse businesses were everywhere. Enterprising samurai would turn busted bamboo umbrella frames into kindling, carefully unpicking oiled parasols and turning them into special wrapping paper. ‘Geta no haire,’ or wooden clog repairers, would travel door-to-door. And if your kettle or old pot sprung a leak, an ‘ikake,’ or metal repairer, was never far away.

Clothing was the ultimate non-disposable product. Traditional kimonos were cut straight in equal proportions with no waste, so they were standardised goods – a significant point of difference with Western clothing. If Western clothes were disassembled they would be different sizes and could not be recycled the way kimonos were – effectively making them single-use items.