A platform for new manufacturing techniques from knit fashion manufacturers in Tokyo who are aiming to achieve the next generation of fashion production. That is TOKYO KNIT. To keep pace with the increasingly diverse trends of contemporary fashion, we will maintain a flexible posture that allows us to respond to a wide range of targets from major apparel to emerging young creators. At the same time, we must be prepared to nurture the next generation of manufacturers and to accurately pass on reliable manufacturing techniques. TOKYO KNIT will reconsider the existing i manufacturing techniques, and propose how to make the system needed for new fashions even more rational and high-level than ever before.

Over 200 businesses related to knits are located in eastern Tokyo, centered on the Honjo neighborhood of Sumida Ward, where they are working together with designers on a daily basis. But why is it that so many of these businesses are concentrated in this area?

This is largely due to the social landscape of the Edo period. As a closed country at that time, Japan was highly reliant on domestic production. At the same time, amidst the approaching peace that accompanied the last breaths of the Sengoku period, samurai warriors threw their swords aside and began to engage in new occupations.

Under these circumstances, the samurai residing in eastern Edo began making knitted products by knitting socks and undergarments by hand. This situation gradually evolved, and under the Meiji government’s policies of promoting new industries, this area became the birthplace of Japanese knit production.

In post-war Tokyo, which had become a cultural center of fashion, many designers established ateliers as distributors and retailers also increased rapidly. Then from the 1970s onward, designs from Tokyo became increasingly popular throughout the entire world, and knit manufacturers in Tokyo became involved in a broad range of creation from casual to high fashion.

Along with solid technical skills based on this history and these experiences, flexible ways of thinking that support the unique creativity of Tokyo fashions, which have continuously intrigued the world, have taken root in Tokyo’s knit industry.