The Sage Nation studio is bright and airy, late-August sunlight drapes over the winter clothes, a preview of the new collection. The space is a hybrid studio-store, with the team and their customers separated by a delicate fabric partition. Sage loves the architecture, the closeness of process and product, of maker and wearer. With a smile, he compares his small brand to a local bakery. ‘I’ve got more in common with a baker than the creative director of an avant-garde fashion house.’ The metaphor comes naturally: early mornings spent kneading fabrics into new shapes, giving rise to community. Good clothes are as essential as good bread. And it’s true, Sage Nation clothes are things that nourish.
Leafing through a publication as he talks, Sage shows us a catalogue of his grandfather’s paintings. Yoshisaburo Toda’s work was exhibited only after his death, and its dark, rich colours now form the palette of Sage’s new collection. He wonders how these new garments will age, especially the coats, whose surfaces might develop a painterly wear and tear. This season, leather mittens and jackets are styled alongside woollen beanies, slouchy cardigans and canvas hoodies.
The collection is accompanied by a new collaboration with Dr. Martens: a Sage Nation riff on the classic Derby shoe, this time with a seam running straight down the middle. A circular tag is attached to the laces. We might expect it to bear a logo or stamp of some kind, but Sage leaves it plain. It’s the Sage Nation ‘dot’, taken from the letter ‘I’ of his logo.
This charmingly subtle detail is not to be overlooked. It says everything you need to know about Sage and his process: precision, clarity and completeness. The brand has been built detail by detail, in resistance to explicit branding and logo-centric identities. Instead, loyalty lies in the brand’s reliability—slow fashion designed to sustain the everyday.
hube: Having grown up in England but been born in Hokkaido, Japan, your practice is founded on an understanding of the social customs, material languages and cultural characteristics of your dual heritage. In what ways do these two cultures align most naturally in your work? At the same time, their differences must also give rise to productive tensions—how so?
Sage Toda-Nation: I have an ongoing joke with my partner Yumi that what we miss about the UK when we are in Japan is the exact opposite of what we miss about Japan when we are in the UK. Both countries are so different but similar at the same time. The contrasts and similarities between both countries are what interests me. I’m a natural product of that tension. Naturally, it comes out in my work, how we do business and generally operate.
My partner Yumi—who works on art direction and marketing—is half Japanese, her mother is the brand’s pattern cutter and has lived in the UK for many years. My mother is British-Scottish but grew up in Japan. So, we are all a bit of a mash-up; this only makes things more confusing [laughs]. In other words, I enjoy my English breakfast tea just as much as I enjoy my sobacha. Above all else, both countries share the same respect for authenticity and respect for what has come before.
