I've created around 5,000 products over the past 20 years, constantly refining my designs.
For me, as a designer, my dream was, "Someday I want to be someone who can create materials."
As I take on this unique project, I believe I've spent the last 20 years of my life as a craftsman working alongside these materials: leather in tanneries, stone in quarries, and fabric on looms.
Of course, my main job as a designer is to create patterns, but the shape is only there to bring out the best in the material. I have a strong aversion to products that try to force their own individuality onto the shape, and when I see them plastered with a huge logo—instead of highlighting the material itself—it makes me want to cry.
So, my dream was to "create materials that don't exist in the world."
The inspiration for starting Motherhouse came from jute, a type of hemp from Bangladesh.
What I wanted was to make new jute.
This year, as the company celebrated its 20th anniversary, that dream finally came true.
Every time I saw a jute field, I felt a strong, almost self-imposed, sense of mission: that in order to make this country shine, I had to revitalize the jute industry.
That sense of mission has not faded even after 20 years.
The new jute fabric, which has just been born, has ultimately been formulated with a 63% polyester and 37% jute blend. It has been named "Jute" and is now beginning its journey to shops and customers.
We will continue to develop new materials while looking for opportunities to launch sales in the U.S.
And I believe that the journey of integrating synthetic and natural fibers will continue to be one of Motherhouse's challenges for a very long time to come.
