nanako yamamori

This is a journey to go back to a tradition, follow our intuition, wait in anticipation
of a new possibility and explore how the past may lead us to the future. It is a new way of unleashing our creativity and seeing our dream in real life.

I travelled to Komatsu with designer Pierangelo d'Agostin in May 2010.

It was still chilly for the Japanese spring and the famous cherry blossom season was already over. But it was a refleshing escape from chaotic Tokyo. We were uplifted by the sight of the snow-topped Mount Hakusan to the east and the Sea of Japan to the west, as we drove through the endless green rice fields.

Pierangelo has been visiting Japan regulary over the years and knows the country as if it was his own land. It was his dream to share his experience not just with the people who wear his clothes, but also with those who make the material from which his designs are crafted. So, he took his clothes back to their origin, Komatsu Seiren.

He was the first European designer ever to visit the factories. “Komatsu Seiren technicians look like samurai. They are proud of their cultural heritage and have a unique identity. They have the ambition to develop new technologies basedon the traditional skills,” he says.

They have over 16,7 million colours to play with and produce 200 million square meters of fabric every day. Their fabrics are used around the world for lothes, sportswear, buildings, electronics, medical equipment, cars and even in bullet trains. With added functions such as colour fade-resistance, weaterproofing, anti-static, odor-control, heat retention and an antibacterial agent. A conventional textile becomes special in their capable hands.

Komatsu Seiren's unique vitality springs from a blanced combination of skillful specialists, high technology fibers and the untouchable power of the surrounding nature. What makes today's Japan so interesting is not novelty, but this contemporay application of traditional culture.

小松発、新生する職人たち

２０１０年、５月。デザイナーのピエランジェロ・ダゴスティンと小松に行った。北陸の春にしては肌寒いのに、もう桜は完全に散ってしまったようだ。ごったがえす東京の人ごみから脱出できただけでもうれしくて、白山と日本海に囲まれた田んぼの間を車でゆっくり走り続けた。

数十年前からこの国に通いつづけている彼は、まるで祖国のようにこの地を知り尽くしていた。だから日本にいる時のピエランジェロの振る舞いに違和感がない。なじみのあるこの土地で、ものづくりの経験を分かち合いたいと思っていた。自分がデザインする洋服を着る人たちとだけでなく、素材や生産に関わっている人たちと、経験をともにしたいというのは彼の長年の夢だったのだろう。そんな思いがあって、創作の原点である小松精練に自分の服を持って帰ることにした。

「小松の技術者たちはサムライみたいだね。自分たちの伝統を継承することに誇りをもっていて、とても個性的だな。昔からの流儀を守りながらも新しい技術を習得しようとしている、野心家たちだね」と言う彼は、工場を訪ねた初めてのヨーロッパ人だった。

１６７０万色を操る小松精練では、年間２億㎡の生地が生産される。その素材は、普段着やアウトドア、産業資材や電気資材、医学品、車、新幹線などいろいろな使い道があって、世界中の生活の場に届けられる。キバタに褪色防止、防水、静電、消臭、蓄熱、抗菌などの特殊な機能を加え、ありふれた素材が熟練工の手によって特別なものになる。

ベテランの職人と高性能な繊維、そして、何よりも自然に囲まれた環境の豊かさが一翼を担って、小松の生命力がある。今日のジャパンを面白くしているのは、前代未聞の新種ではない、築きあげてきた伝統の新鮮さだ。

Nanako Yamamori began her promising career at Bloomberg Television in Tokyo as a journalist in 2000. She worked for the Asia-Pacific's flagship live programme Moneycast Asia, which won the Asia Broadcast TV Award.

Nanako came to public attention as a Japanese correspondent in 2002 for Bloomberg TV, then immediately stsarted a daily live reports on the Italian TV unit of Bloomberg News, "Il doppio Espresso" and "SkyTg24" of Sky Italia. Nanako is perceived as the Japan face of the Italian TV networks.

She also worked for documentaries and feature films and interviewed a wider range of celebrities, politicians and corporate executives;
Charlize Theron, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Luciano Benetton, Diego Della Valle, Giorgio Armani, Gilberto Simone, Alessandro Baricco just to name a few. Her interviews and programmes are broadcast in more than three languages throughout the world; Bloomberg, Sky Italia, BBC, Channel 4, Discovery Channel, MTV, Fox.

She currently works and lives in Italy.

nanako yamamori

un'esperienza

Neo Artisan, Made in Komatsu

Profile