Open-Clothes community

Open-Clothes is a community of young Japanese fashion activists who want to change the rules of the Japanese fashion industry. The community's objective is to offer clothes in "'I Size", that is, individually designed and produced. Ars Electronica on Open-Clothes:

"Open-clothes.com" is a meeting place for tailors showcasing their private creations, and potential customers with a taste for extraordinary, new custom-tailored garments. Articles of clothing can be displayed, scrutinized, critiqued and purchased online. Buyers contact producers directly and order items of clothing "made to measure. (...) The site also offers a stark contrast to the strictly hierarchical and centrally organized Japanese clothing industry that generally does little to nurture newcomers or small producers with no support from large production firms. "Open-Clothes" thus supports the entire value-creation chain in fashion making and contributes to the resurrection of a culture of small-scale producers that had become extinct in the wake of industrialization and globalization.

Founded in 2000, Open-Clothes has currently about 4,500 members. (I want to join too but I haven't found an English version of their page!)

Via Regine

Comments

[regine]

hi ulla,
i think you should get in touch with Joi Ito (http://joi.ito.com/). He probably has heard of what you're doing via loic le meur. and if not, he might love it. he was the one who talked about Open Clothes at ars electronica last year and he did it with passion. so he might be able to help you and provide you with more information.

[Ulla-Maaria]

Thanks Regine!! Joi, are you out there? You should come and play softy baseball with us in Fiskars tomorrow! Anyway, you'll probably catch us on Marko's flickr stream if he has already stopped documenting his sock.

[bape hoodies]

The only japanese clothing I would be caught dead in is bape, the rest is ugly.

[Bape]

Every kid had a cool BAPE t-shirt or hat and I just had to have one.