Niime Tamaki

Niime Tamaki (玉木 新雌, born 1978) is a Japanese fashion designer and Banshu-ori artist. She was born in Fukui, encountered Banshu-ori while seeking an ideal cloth, and moved to Nishiwaki, Hyogo. She created "New style of Banshu-ori" arranging Banshu-ori. She launched the brand "tamaki niime" in 2004 and established Tamaki Niime Limited Company (有限会社玉木新雌）in 2006. She raised the Banshu-ori, which was a local industry, to the world brand..

She has started to weave the shawls with multicolored pre-dyed yarn by her own looms and also dyed yarns in a unique way. These soft and fluffy shawls became popular and were selected as "The Wonder 500" by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. In 2005, she received "Hanayaka Kansai Selection 2016" and "Hyogo Female Future/Hanada Award". "Niime (新雌)" is her designer name that means and includes her thought: "I would like to propose a new female image.

She has had an effect on Nishiwaki-shi; the city accepted 15 young designer trainees from all over the country in November 2017 .

Background

Early life

She was from Katsuyama-shi, Fukui and born to parents who run Clothes shops. She was curious from girlhood and had a strong quest for the design and comfort of her own clothes. The dream of her elementary school days was "I want my children to wear the clothes that I made." She had a chance to make her first creation at elementary school and made an apron that has a unique pocket with embroideries. She felt the pleasure of creating an "original work" that was totally different from others. She already tended to prefer comfortable and pleasant taste. By the time of junior high school, she became unsatisfied with ready-made garments and already started making clothes by herself.

Banshu-ori artist

After graduating from Mukogawa Women's University Department of Life Environment, she studied at ESMOD JAPON:The international Fashion design and Business school and got a job as a pattern maker at a textile trading company in Osaka. But she felt dissatisfied with her work content and then became independent after 1 year and 10 months. While seeking an ideal cloth, she encountered Banshu-ori and focused on the quality of its technology. Her hometown Fukui is known as an active town of textile industry. However the main material had already changed from silk to chemical fiber and also those are fabric dyeing, so she felt that is not what she wanted. And then she began activity as a Banshu-ori artist. She is attracted to Banshu-ori that can create a beautiful combination with pre-dyed warp and weft, and felt that it has more possibility than post-dying fabric and the method of printing on a mass-produced white cloth. For three years she designed with the fabric woven by craftsmen in Nishiwaki-shi and sold apparel in Osaka. After that she opened a directly managed store in Nishiwaki-shi, moved there and began to operate the loom by herself.

However, at that time, Banshu-ori had already been dominated by mass production of shirt fabrics which were not distinctive. Tamaki also produced shirt fabric similarly to other traders. During weaving and seeking the fabric that she wanted, she weaved a really soft fabric that was difficult to sew by chance. But she found that it was very comfortable to wear around the neck. This resulted in the birth of the soft feel shawl like a cotton candy which later became the main work. She continued development with the concept of "an original shawl loved by everyone regardless of sex, age, nationality". She introduced a belt-type power loom made in 1965 to her atelier, woven and produced "only one shawl" that became a popular product with a particularly high evaluation due to the unique three-dimensional feeling which can’t be obtained with the latest machines .

Currently, she mainly produces shawls, shirts, pants, children's clothes, bags and so on. She sells her products wholesale to partner select shops and department stores, and holds exhibitions in Japan. As of March 2017, her works are sold internationally in over 200 stores in 15 countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Belgium. And Toshizou Ido, Hyogo prefectural governor is also known as one of her customers.

Her laboratory is equipped with old shuttle looms, a yarn dyeing machine system, a warper, CAD / CAM, an arrange winder which can create a gradation like a rainbow by winding multicolor threads for continuous, and the state-of-the-art WHOLEGARMENT machines made by "SHIMA SEIKI MFG., LTD." which is able to knit without sewing. Tamaki took advantage of the high technology of the Banshu-ori, took in a thorough consumer's perspective, continued to think about how to make it interesting, so she repeatedly devised various things such as publicly opening the workshops where the looms are lined up, frequently replacing the exhibited items .

Commitment to organic

Her motto is the words of Confucius, "一以之貫". (In other words in English, "My way has one thread that runs right through it") To make Hie-cho into a cotton town, she has borrowed abandoned cultivation land and has worked on cultivating organic cotton with her employees from 2014. In addition, they also distributed cotton seeds to farmers, purchased each seed at the time of harvest, and also started trying to produce net domestic production in all processes. From around 2017, Tamaki began thinking about mass production, mass consumption, global environment problems, etc. with business expansion. After encountering yoga, she was interested in vegan and changed to a vegan diet, furthermore started trying to share cultivated vegetables with customers.

Influence

But due to the success of the "tamaki niime" brand, clothing using Banshu-ori and textile brands launched one after another. As of September 2018, it had increased rapidly to 30, brands that expand overseas have also appeared, and phenomena where Banshu-ori fans visit the production area have also occurred .

Biography

Source ()

• 1978 - Born in Katsuyama-shi, Fukui.

After graduating from Mukogawa Women's University Department of Life Environment, she studied fashion at a vocational school.

• 2004 – In December, launched brand tamaki niime aiming for a new interpretation and development of Banshu-ori.
• 2006 – In April, tamaki niime Co., Ltd. established.
• 2008 – In April, opened a directly managed store in Nishiwaki-shi.
• 2009 - In May, moved to Nishiwaki-shi, developed and started production of original shawls.
• 2010 – In April, opened a directly managed "tamaki niime weaving room & stock room" in Nishiwaki-shi. In October, she introduced two belt type weaving looms made in 1965 and started making "only one shawl" woven by Tamaki herself.
• 2011- In May, introduced a rapier loom made in 1983.
• 2012 - In March, introduced innovative knitting machines.
• 2014 - February, started cultivation of organic cotton. In August, she introduced the Netherlands hand weaving machine "louët" megado ", and introduced a circular knitting machine in November.
• 2015 - "Hanayaka Kansai Selection 2016" and "Hyogo Female Future / Hanada Award" received.
• 2016 - In September, "tamaki niime weaving room & stock room" moved to the foot of Mount Okano in Nishiwaki-shi. She opened the new Shop&Lab about five times the area of the previous Lab which renovated the old dye factory. Aiming at "a space where producers and buyers connect", it was structured to see Lab from Shop through the glass. tamaki niime’s “roots shawl” was selected by the Kansai Economic Federation on October 3 as one of ten Kansai's special products "Hanayaka Kansai Selection" which recommended to foreigners visiting Japan.
• 2017 - In February, introduced two power looms made in 1967 and a warping machine. On February 21, she exhibited at Banshu-ori Messe! 2017 (Minato-ku, Tokyo). In April, started cultivation of rice and vegetables without agricultural chemicals. In October, introduced a circular knitting machine and two glass spinning machines. A total of 13 machines are in operation.
• 2018 - in January, opened a cafe space: tabe room with about 50 seats on the second floor of the Shop and Lab. They provide organic cultivated coffee, locally produced tea and vegan sweets and lunch on weekdays. Every Saturday and Sunday, they are having “Haragoshirae-kai” : invite a guest food creator who serve a special body-friendly lunch including the vegan menu.

Media

TV

• ニュースKOBE発とっておき兵庫 – 「播州織りの新しい魅力」 (NEWS KOBE hatsu Totteoki Hyogo- "New attraction of Banshu-ori") (NHK Kobe Broadcasting Bureau, June 17, 2011)
• ガイアの夜明け – 「雑貨ブームがニッポンを変える」 Gaia's dawn – "Miscellaneous goods boom changes Nippon" (TV Tokyo, October 2, 2012)
• ゆうがたLIVE ワンダー – 「あっぱれJAPAN魂 播州織ショール作家 玉木新雌」 (Yuugata LIVE Wonder – "Appare JAPAN soul Banshu-ori shawl writer Tamaki Niime" (Kansai TV, March 18, 2016)
• 夢見るチカラNo.9-「玉木新雌（播州織作家）×朝美絢」 (Dreaming Power) No. 9 – "Tamaki Niime (Banshu-ori Writer) × Asami Aya" (宝塚歌劇専門チャンネル(Takarazuka Revue Specialty Channel))
• ちちんぷいぷい – 「ここはどこ?あなたはだれ?」 (Chichin　Puipui – "Where is here? Who are you?" (Mainichi Broadcast, February 6, 2018)

Radio

• 三上公也の情報アサイチ!（Mr. Kimiya Mikami's Information Asaiichi) (ラジオ関西 (Radio Kansai, May 4, 2012）

See also

• Powerloom

External links

• tamaki niime Official Website
• tamaki niime – Facebook
• tamaki niime – Instagram

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