Sumi Ai Indigo Sorahikohime Nou
Sumi Ai Indigo Sorahikohime Nou
¥9,995.00 CNY
A rough, textured surface with strong body and firmness. The fabric is woven slowly on vintage shuttle looms that have been running since the 1950s.
Sumi Ai layers sumi ink dyeing over natural indigo extracted from plant leaves—a natural black denim. The overlapping sumi and indigo create deep shadows. No matter how much you wash it, the fabric never looks worn out. The refined color that endures is something only 100% natural indigo denim can offer.
Sumi Ai layers sumi ink dyeing over natural indigo extracted from plant leaves—a natural black denim. The overlapping sumi and indigo create deep shadows. No matter how much you wash it, the fabric never looks worn out. The refined color that endures is something only 100% natural indigo denim can offer.
A rough, textured surface with strong body and firmness. The fabric is woven slowly on vintage shuttle looms that have been running since the 1950s.
Sumi Ai layers sumi ink dyeing over natural indigo extracted from plant leaves—a natural black denim. The overlapping sumi and indigo create deep shadows. No matter how much you wash it, the fabric never looks worn out. The refined color that endures is something only 100% natural indigo denim can offer.
Sumi Ai layers sumi ink dyeing over natural indigo extracted from plant leaves—a natural black denim. The overlapping sumi and indigo create deep shadows. No matter how much you wash it, the fabric never looks worn out. The refined color that endures is something only 100% natural indigo denim can offer.
A Journey with Ai Denim
In September 2000, on the day we opened our New York store, we introduced Made-in-Japan denim dyed with natural Ai. For us, natural indigo does not begin in the dye vat. It begins in the fields—seeds planted in spring, leaves harvested in summer, then steamed, dried, and fermented into sukumo. In Tokushima, this process alone can take close to a year. Only after the indigo is carefully cultivated and the dye vat is built does the dyeing begin. The yarn is dipped and aired 20 to 30 times, oxidizing again and again, not simply coloring the thread but allowing the blue to grow. What drew us in was not just the color, but the layers of time held within it.
Story of 藍
While searching for a new possibility in denim, we encountered a rare workshop in Tokushima that carries out both indigo dyeing and weaving under one roof. Dyeing and weaving are usually separate crafts, yet here, naturally dyed yarn could be woven on a Japanese shuttle loom capable of producing true selvedge denim. Because indigo is alive, it changes with the day—sometimes vigorous, sometimes resting. Watching its condition, the artisans dye the yarn over two to three weeks until the color penetrates to the core. Around 2,200 warp threads are then aligned by hand and woven on a 1950s shuttle loom that produces only 30 meters a day. The clean white selvedge and the textured irregularity are marks of this loom, and even after repeated washing, the denim does not fade to white but deepens into a misty, purplish Japan Blue.
