Mingei is the Japanese word for folk craft. These are traditional crafts in the sense that they have detoured very little since their beginnings. Usually regarded for their simplicity and functional design, but subtle beauty. These have helped shaped Japanese culture, by combining the effort of many different skilled craftspeople into one object.

Cottle is a brand based on beauty and practicality. An actual made-in-house brand that does patterns, sewing, designing in their own on-site factory. For me this is the pure aesthetic for apparel. Fabrics range from hand woven Laoatian cotton/silk, Imabari towel pile cotton/wool, cotton dobby sashiko, indigo wool knits etc. Each one of these fabrics has been painstakingly sourced and carefully added to an organic color pallet which is both fresh and very easy to coordinate looks with.

What is most striking about Cottle is their entirely organic approach to their textiles. None of their products include any synthetic fibers. Here is eco-fashion, REAL eco-fashion in action. They have little if any supply chain carbon output, and their dyeing is all done the natural way and local. This practical method of making clothing for me is what really shines.

The style of the garments is a lot of west mixed with a bit of east. Note some of the shirts have Kintsugi buttons (nice touch), while the western shirts have bronze pearl snaps that are a nice subtle touch. Details on the quilt stitched coat are sublime and just to note the pink color they use is Japanese traditional madder root dye which is not easy to get right. They hit the bullseye though…

Details details details… far too many to mention but the one that really stands out to me is the cast button on the denim. Cast buttons on denim are an exquisite touch, they have a nice weight and instead of being stamped it gives a pair of jeans a nice finishing touch. Cottle denim is unique as it is spun with cotton and linen thread. This is actually very traditional consequently to Japanese denim from the early 1900’s. From the samples of old Japanese denim I have seen from that era there is always a mix of cotton and linen in the denim. Cottle may have been familiar with this but it was a nice subtle touch to the fabric. The selvedge line is something monumentally beautiful. Using bengara or iron oxide dyed threads for the redline selvedge is plain lovely. Iron Oxide is a part of Okayama heritage in the quaint village of Fukiya. The inspiration for the selvedge line came from a piece of hand woven tapestry that Watanabe-san (Owner) found at the Folk Crafts Museum in Kurashiki.

Helped and edited by Jack Goldman