A Japanese Weaving Technique Creates a Jeweled Bag

Due to Asprey, Britain and Japan now share one thing greater than their love for tea.

In October the British luxurious retailer unveiled the Hikihaku Matchbox, a limited-edition jeweled clutch bag created with Japan’s conventional Hikihaku weaving approach.

John Rigas, Asprey’s chairman since 2006, wrote in an e mail that the clutch’s boxy form and title had been impressed by the ornamental matchboxes, made in silver or gold, that the corporate produced within the Nineteen Twenties. “References of these might be present in Asprey’s catalogs from the Artwork Deco interval,” he wrote.

The clamshell-style bag, which has a brass body plated in palladium, makes use of a clasp topped with a lapis lazuli sphere, minimize and polished to suit inside a rotating ring, the identical look present in Asprey’s Cosmic Orbit jewellery assortment.

For the bag’s décor of roses on a leafy department with an iridescent white background, Mr. Rigas organized a collaboration with Genbei Yamaguchi, an award-winning obi maker and kimono designer in Kyoto, Japan. Mr. Yamaguchi is the chief govt of Kondaya Genbei, a maker and retailer of conventional kimonos and obi since 1738, which focuses on Hikihaku. The approach entails turning valuable supplies into threads after which weaving them into numerous kinds; it historically has been used for kimonos and obi.

Every of the bag’s ornamental parts started with a unique materials: The roses, lapis lazuli; the leaves and department, silver; and the background, mother-of-pearl.

However the course of was related for all three. As soon as the fabric was both damaged down or pounded into skinny sheets, it was utilized to washi paper (made from bark) and the mixture then minimize into strips 0.05 centimeters (0.02 inches) thick. The strips had been then woven collectively by hand, typically with different threads, to create the ultimate materials.

“This manufacturing needed to be approached from a unique perspective to that of weaving the obi,” Mr. Yamaguchi wrote in an e mail. “Contemplating that the clutch bag was to be hand-held, the mother-of-pearl inlays had been made even thinner than traditional. To precise the royal blue coloration, mineral lapis lazuli was made into tremendous particles.”

He wrote that six artisans, together with draftsmen, patternmakers and weavers, labored on the bag.

The clutch, restricted to fifteen items, is 20 centimeters (virtually eight inches) extensive and comes with a removable chain shoulder strap. It’s priced at 16,000 kilos (about $19,750) and is offered for pre-order from early December at Asprey’s London flagship retailer at 36 Bruton Avenue.

“Every bit is a tribute to the talent and dedication of craftspeople who breathe life into historical strategies in a up to date context,” Mr. Rigas wrote. “It’s the union of British class and Japanese custom.”