Why Embroidery?

Sashiko motifs quietly live throughout TMMY’s products.

Here, we would like to share why we were drawn to sashiko, and how it came to form the foundation of our approach to making clothes.

As TMMY has continued to ask the question, “How can we cherish clothing more deeply?”, we began to feel that the warmth created by handwork—and the emotional connection that forms between maker and wearer—might be one meaningful answer. It was through this line of thinking that we encountered sashiko and boro: cultural practices that developed organically within Japan as both symbolic and physical expressions of care.

Sashiko is a form of everyday culture that has long been passed down in Japan. In colder regions especially, it evolved as a practical means of reinforcing fabric and retaining warmth, allowing limited textile resources to be used for as long as possible. In times when worn garments could not simply be replaced, people layered and stitched cloth together to strengthen it, extend its life, and protect themselves from the cold. The culture of sashiko is deeply rooted in practicality—frugality, repair, and insulation—and cannot be understood through aesthetics alone.

In the process of fashion design, it is common to research and draw from cultures that have formed and endured across different regions of the world. When we engage with sashiko as a tradition, we are careful not to consume it merely as decoration or visual motif. Instead, we seek to acknowledge and carry forward the historical realities and lived experiences that gave rise to it.

Alongside this, we challenge ourselves to minimize waste generated during the production process as part of our response to environmental concerns.

Most production waste inevitably takes the form of fabric offcuts, and we have spent considerable time reflecting on how these remnants should be treated. We experimented with pattern-making approaches that produce no offcuts, but ultimately found that such methods imposed limitations that compromised the silhouettes and design qualities we value.

Rather than resisting the existence of offcuts, we arrived at a different question: how can they be meaningfully used? In this context, sashiko emerged as an ideal answer.

Stitching together offcuts of varying sizes and shapes, drawing out their latent potential, and discovering new possibilities through the process resonated deeply with the very origins of sashiko itself. This experience—like connecting one point to another—became a defining moment that shaped the direction of TMMY’s creative practice.

Even if it means moving against the accelerating cycle of mass production and consumption that defines our time, we continue to believe that careful, craftsmanlike handwork is what will shape the future.