Interview

No Right Answers to Materials.
Mr. Hiroshi Hosokawa :
Hosokawa Woollen Textile Co., Ltd.

What is high quality textile? Expensive raw materials, or excellent presentation? The answer is in Izumi-otsu, Osaka. President Mr. Hosokawa tells us the advantages of Japanese textiles relating it to the issues concerning the fashion industry. Based on the company tradition since 1910, he now proposes revolutionary materials.

The domestic production centres are exhausted. Tell us about onsite issues.
I don’t think this is exclusive to production centres. We hear that domestic production centres are exhausted due to foreign forces such as from China. But I think this is an industry-wide problem that includes the outsourcing of materials by domestic apparel businesses and the lack of interest in domestic materials from young designers.

What are Hosokawa’s strengths and the direction of production centres?
We deal with small lots that are quickly adaptable to new circumstances. We also propose innovative fabrics in addition to our regular ones. In the past, we focused on basic materials, but we have recently developed a quilted material with rare cashmere inside. In fact, some designers in Japan use this fabric over 10,000 yen per meter as a liner (detachable inner layer), not as an outer layer. This cost is no doubt quite astounding to our technical experts who are in their 60s. While this is not used by big apparel companies, it is a material that can be used by potential designers, the result of discussions, where nuances and values only the Japanese can understand and appreciate are turned into merchandise. We plan to continue exchanging information with designers. You see, there is no one right answer to material development.