Maison Chichigami ((better)) Info

Far from a traditional fashion brand, Maison Chichigami operates as an atelier-laboratory . The name itself is a philosophical puzzle: "Chichigami" is a neologism blending the Japanese concept of Chichi (father/milk, depending on kanji, but used here to denote a "source" or "origin") and Kami (paper/spirit/god). The house’s signature, however, is not paper, but an almost impossible textile that looks like paper, moves like silk, and breathes like linen. The house was founded in 2018 by Eloïse Durand , a French textile engineer, and Kenji Hattori , a ninth-generation weaver from Kiryu, Japan. Durand had been obsessed with Washi —traditional Japanese paper made from the fibers of the kozo (mulberry) bush. While Washi is known for its tensile strength (archivists use it to repair ancient manuscripts), it is brittle when folded and impossible to sew.

The silhouettes are deliberately oversized, not for fashion, but for the "future volume" required for re-cutting. A size 2 jacket has the same shoulder width as a size 6, because the wearer is expected to grow into the looser cut after Metamorphosis. maison chichigami

Hattori, whose family survived the decline of the Japanese silk industry, had spent 20 years developing a proprietary method of twisting and laminating kozo fibers without breaking their crystalline structure. The breakthrough came when they discovered that by hydrating the twisted kozo thread and weaving it on a specific tension (1.7 newtons—a number now sacred to the brand), the resulting fabric mimicked the hand of a heavy crepe while retaining the acoustic and tactile properties of vellum. Far from a traditional fashion brand, Maison Chichigami