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Kokka 2015 Fall Collection

In the first week of September, Kokka hosted its periodical trade show in Tokyo. Here is the preliminary report on the show with Kokka’s new textiles and latest collections.

Let’s start with “Pikku Saari”, the colorful and eye-catching textile from Finland, created by Eri Shimatsuka who is the Helsinki-residing designer. The motifs inspired by her daily life in the seaside city Helsinki are spread across the fabric.

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These are other new brands by overseas designers that Kokka has collaborated with: Obiko (left) and MARISA (right).

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Obiko is the creation of Linda Williams, the designer who is based in a seaside town of UK, Hastings. The not-too-cute yet witty textile can be great for making women’s bags or pouches.

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MARISA is a fabric brand by the American textile designer, Marisa Anne, who has many followers on her official website “Creative Thursday”. The print with adorable animals or small flowers is great for kids’ clothing. The tiny print fabric is very versatile and appropriate for sewers of all levels of experience. With this fun fabric, enjoy your sewing projects, which include bags and garments.

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Now this, echino! The extremely popular brand is introducing knitted jacquard fabrics for the upcoming season. The material can create something sophisticated, soft and subtle in a way that words can’t convey. This may bring innovation to your dressmaking with echino.

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The latest collection of nani IRO Textile by Naomi Ito is here.

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One of nani IRO basics “Fuwari fuwari”, which is paint-like and reminiscent of pointillism, is now available in brushed cotton! A girl’s dress made with the new fabric and a jacket of fluffy pre-quilted “Fuccra:rakuen” fabric were displayed next to each other in the trade show venue. Although each was made with different textures, they nicely harmonized to create a warm and comfy feel. This is naniIRO magic! No wonder why this textile brand is always attractive.

Every year, Kokka’s September show features a wide variety of fabrics to create items in preparation for the new school year in Japan. This year, the imitation of an elementary school classroom was set up in the venue. As if it had been a theatrical play for children, the classroom scene was truly recreated with popular fictional characters as students. Kids would have loved it!
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In the picture below a shoe bag and a lesson bag made with Petite Ecole cotton series are displayed. In addition to many perfect fabrics for school items, new prints from Disney and Hello Kitty were presented at the trade show. Hopefully you will meet them soon at your local fabric store.

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Did you enjoy our brief report on the lineup of latest collections from Kokka? In fact there are more textiles and stories we want to share with you. We will continue to cover brand-new fabrics in our Textile Story column. Don’t miss it!