Junichi Arai

the designers

Junichi Arai was born in 1932 in Kiryu, a traditional textile centre in the North of Tokyo. As his father and his family for six generations, Aria learnt to weave kimonos.

His trips after the war to South America, India and Indonesia broaden his knowledge on antique fabrics. The first fabrics that Arai used were an experimental mixture of materials as celluloid, aluminium sheets, metallic filaments, silk and polyester. Later on, he concentrated in design technology.

His works, through sophisticated computer technology, go beyond the conventional ideas on fabrics, texture and garments. To obtain his cloth «Nuno me Gara» in 1983 Arai photocopied wrinkled strips from different types of cloths and scanned the result. In his «Ki No Ne» in 1985, the surface moves and gets tangled up as hair.

His spectacular fabrics, very complex, mix computer technology, contemporary materials and hand-crafted tradition. Arai´s sensitivity and knowledge on fibres and the physical and emotional response to these fibres from people have attracted Haute Couture designers as Rei Kawakube, Yoji Yamamoto or Issei Miyake, looking for the vibrant movement and the changing aspect of Arai´s fabrics for their creations.

Since he closed his company Anthologie in 1987 he works from his shop in Tokyo, Nuno, as an independent designer.