In the coastal town of Ōtsuchi, Iwate, the Sashiko Gals—a collective of women aged 40 to 80—have transformed the traditional Japanese stitching art of sashiko into a luxury-fashion phenomenon rooted in a deep sense of craft and community. With each piece masterfully made by hand, the group preaches sustainability through their intentional scarcity. Emerging in the wake of the 2011 disaster, their distinctive needlework has evolved into sought-after collaborations with some of the world’s leading fashion brands. In March 2025, they launched their first capsule with C.P. Company: 15 individually hand-stitched outerwear pieces in Chrome-R fabric, each one-of-a-kind. Meanwhile, their bespoke work for Veja and Maison Margiela, to name a few, has further cemented their cult status in fashion circles as an impossible must-have. Through these collaborations, the Sashiko Gals have raised artisanal craft to runway status—stitching heritage and Japanese craftsmanship into the world of high fashion, one bespoke piece at a time.
hube: There’s poetry in Sashiko—this act of weaving, braiding, and connecting threads to create something stronger and more resilient than the fabric before. It feels fitting that this became the medium for a group born from the work of repair—of garments, of homes, of lives. How has the Sashiko Gals collective evolved over the years, and how have your values and modes of communication changed as you began working within the luxury fashion world?
Arata Fujiwara: Although the environment around us has changed dramatically, our everyday lives remain the same. We still go to the mountains in the morning to gather wild vegetables and chat with the same friends as always. Perhaps it differs from person to person, but since we are women with strong character and a wealth of life experience, I don’t feel that we ourselves have changed very much.
h: We often speak of the quiet wisdom carried by women—mothers passing down recipes, remedies, and stories to their daughters. What kind of strength do you think emerges from women joining forces through craft and community, and what might others learn from the way you work together?
AF: I feel a deep, unwavering kind of strength within them. Perhaps it comes from being grounded in the Japanese tradition of Sashiko itself. I’ve never really thought about what others might learn from us, but if someone sees our work and feels inspired to try it themselves, that makes me happy.
h: The Sashiko Gals are celebrated collaborators—Maison Margiela, Veja, Nike—yet your lives remain rooted in the small coastal town of Ōtsuchi. How do you reconcile these two identities: the global and the local, the collective and the individual? Has this duality required a kind of inner reconciliation as well?
AF: In my case, and for our creative team as well, we are based in Tokyo, so we naturally embody both the global and local sides. At the same time, all of us have deep respect for Ōtsuchi, and that respect allows everything to stay in harmony quite naturally.
