-Japanese textile- "Tsumugi"

Tsumugi is a woven fabric made using pre-dyed tsumugi yarn. Silk thread is usually produced by extracting fibers from silkworm cocoons, but tsumugi yarn is spun from defective cocoons that cannot yield raw silk. Pre-dyeing involves expressing patterns using handlooms or machinery on yarn that has been dyed in advance.

While pre-dyeing incurs higher costs compared to post-dyeing, where patterns are dyed onto white fabric using various techniques, tsumugi's durability is superior due to each yarn being dyed individually before weaving, resulting in minimal color fading and degradation. It has been used for everyday clothing and workwear for generations, passed down from fathers to sons.

Anecdotes suggest that newly tailored tsumugi fabric was stiff, and affluent merchants would have their employees wear their tsumugi to soften it. Characteristics such as durability, workwear utility, and initial stiffness are reminiscent of denim.

Tsumugi fabric is woven from unevenly thick tsumugi yarns, twisted by hand, giving it its characteristic appearance. Unlike fabrics made from silk threads extracted from regular cocoons, which have a characteristic sheen, tsumugi emits a dull luster and develops small bumps, giving it a unique texture.

Size: 1290cm x 38cm (length, width)