FASCINATE

Before I learned to do anything, I liked cartoons and video games. I used to imitate characters and draw pictures, play with clay, and make plastic models. I enjoyed making things by moving my hands.

When I was a child, I often transferred to another school because of my parents' work, and even when I made friends, I was separated from them immediately and had a ... life of repetition, but even when I transferred to another school, my classmates showed interest in what I made, and there were many times when I made friends.

However, my life was like breaking up with my friend in a short time, so I think I spent more time playing with my older brother at that time.
I was inspired by my older brother who excelled academically, and I studied very hard when I was a junior high school student.

However, at the high school where I was going to, I didn't get used to my classmates who were only talking about study, and gradually I got tired of studying. I was feeling dizzy without any particular goal, but my mother, unable to see that, proposed "If you like painting and modeling, why don't you go to an art university?" and asked for a brochure of a preparatory school for an art university.

There was a reference work of a high-level drawing drawn by a cram school student of the same age, and I was shocked because I had never met a person of the same age who was better at drawing than me.

Soon after that, I entered an art college in Tokyo, where I received frantic training in sculpture along with the students who had passed the entrance exam.
At the university, I made people that I could call close friends, and I had a fulfilling time with them, doing backpacking trips to other Asian countries and concentrating on my work.

I was originally interested in fashion, and when I was a university student, I happened to know that a certain brand existed, and I became very interested.
I was driven by an urge to actually see the products of that brand, so I went to the store, saw the actual products, fell in love with the design and quality again, applied for the recruitment of new graduates, and joined the design department.

After joining the company, I was assigned to the design department specializing in vintage processing and remaking, where I acquired the knowledge and skills of sewing and vintage processing, and also learned the concept of design.

I worked for about 10 years, and after 5 years, my boss quit his job to become the head of the design department.
Up until then, I had to go through a cycle of making samples with my own hands and starting work in the factory, but I gradually shifted to work mainly on the design and management of a large number of items by having many subordinates draw design drawings and giving instructions to subordinates and factory workers.

As a craftsman who likes to shape what he thinks with his own hands, I felt it was a very rewarding and honorable job.

However, as I became a manager, I started to spend less and less time moving my hands and shaping, and more and more time managing people, there were moments when I almost forgot my original intention.

After retiring from the company, when I was worried about my future work style and direction, my partner who I am now working with and my best friend from my college days gave me a boost, so I came up with the idea of "Go back to your basics and start a brand that makes your own ideas." and started my brand "PROLETA RE ART" this March (2021).

The concept of PROLETA RE ART is taken from "PROLETA RE ART, a proletarian worker and have-nots in a capitalist society".

The purpose of this wearable item is to be "reincarnated" as "clothes that you will not want to give up for the rest of your life" with the sense of "RE ART", not just "REPAIR", by thoroughly repairing, customizing and vintage processing the used clothes once they are out of hand.

All the designs are done by me alone, and all the production is done by me and my partner alone, which complements the complete quality control.

In my creation, the most important thing is to "make what one has envisioned into what one has envisioned"

The more people enter between the draft and the completion, the more difficult it will certainly be.

By creating your own work, even if you come up with an idea that is different from the original image, you can quickly arrange it while you are working, and you can update the quality of the work to a higher level.

As in the production of general apparel, samples are made through a number of people and mass-produced as samples. This is exactly the opposite of the cycle, but I think my stance and the concept of the brand are the best fit, so I keep doing it.

Also, since I have in mind to complete everything with my own hands, it is not "something that is difficult to shape realistically" that I don't know whether I can make a design or not, and I can make works that exactly meets my image clearly and concretely without worrying about other people, allowing me to thoroughly do it.

If the customer continues to wear my work and it breaks, I will repair it myself if they wish.

This is not just a simple repair, but also a repair that adds to the design, and we provide a wearable product that is always close to the life of our customers, which makes them even more loved.

Also, as for custom orders, I will usually arrange the base used clothes, but if they wish, I can keep their used plain clothes and repair and customize them.

It's a long story, but when I was still in the lower grades of elementary school, I saw a worn-out leather wallet my father was using.

My father had no interest in fashion at all and had been using a cheap brown leather wallet for many years which, after many years of use, had seeped the fat of his hands into the surface of the leather and produced a dark gloss, and the brass buttons and fasteners had rust of verdigris, and the torn places had been repaired with a simple tape.

But even it had peeled off and was shabby, the wallet was telling me, as an aura, the story of my father using the wallet and the impression that he had been treated without much maintenance.

For me at the time, the wallet looked more special and attractive than any toy or animation. My father said it was time to buy a new one, but I begged him and took the wallet that was about to be thrown away.

My father thought that it was strange.

In this way, when the owner repairs and customizes his or her belongings and uses them for a long time, the individual wears an aura that reflects his or her humanity.

I am very interested in such things, and the reason I keep upgrading old clothes is because I believe that by continuing to repair and dress up, the clothes will change over time and will update the aging.

nd I want to express the sense of value and the interest of the story as the concept of my design.

I didn't mean it, but it is, as a result.

Clothes that are mass-produced in factories are cut off in large quantities during the cutting process, and they are disposed of, unsold inventory is sold at a sale price, and unsold inventory is incinerated ....

For me, the fact that I felt uncomfortable with the cycle of the apparel industry may have some influence.

However, I personally think that the true sustainability is not to mention the superficial ecology and sustainability that we have seen in recent years, but to make customers think that they want to have the clothes for the rest of their lives through the power of design and craft.

The PROLETA RE ART consists of two main lines, one called "UROBOROS" and the other called "MEME"

"UROBOROS" is derived from the word "UROBOROS" which means circularity, permanence (death, regeneration, destruction and creation), and infinity (immortality), and it is the title of the series with a BORO motif.

After washing severely damaged used jeans and denim jackets at high temperature, all parts are disassembled and repaired, then patchwork is done with vintage USA bandanas and old english indigo dyed fabric from 100 years ago.

After that, it is given a special vintage treatment and sublimated into a wearable work that evokes "BORO", which can be said to be a english cultural heritage.

Using old cloth, etc., and through a filter called BORO, it breathes new life into the materials that have once left their hands and finished their work.

I got to know "BORO" when I first saw the clothes of the brand from my previous job when I was a college student.
This item, which was heavily vintage processed, has a quality that can be mistaken for a real vintage.

Moreover, the design and details of the specifications that are not found in vintage were very fresh.
I was very surprised when I heard from the staff that "This is done by one person from design to remake and vintage finish.", and it was almost done that I was very interested in the brand.
Then, I thought I could wear the aura which surpasses real vintage items by special work of vintage processing, so I continued the research of BORO production.

"MEME" is quoted from "Internet Meme."

Since I was a junior high school student, I liked looking for interesting pictures on the Internet and seeing pictures of bad characters drawn by amateurs.

When I was a student at Tokyo University, I traveled to Southeast Asia, India, and Nepal.
I remember seeing pictures of characters on billboards of private shops and food stalls that everyone knows, such as Mickey Mouse, they were not drawn well but had a strong characteristic flavor.

I was very impressed by those pictures. They were also exposed to the wind and rain, weathered, and saddened by the melancholy of their lives, and had a unique flavor that impressed me.
For me, rather than any famous painter's masterpiece, I like, more than anything else, the artworks that amateurs or children have drawn or made, which are ‘bad’, but distorted and tasteful.

This feeling is incorporated into the design of "MEME".
And there's another reason, which comes from the hacking culture.

When I was a junior high school student, I happened to use a computer to surf the Internet, and I came to know that there was a culture called "HACK ROM" where an individual hacks data from computer software, remodels the character design, background music, effects and stage structure, and rewrites the original form of the game into a completely different game.

Of course, I think it's illegal, but the work that was remodeled by the fanatic fans of the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) software far exceeded the difficulty level of the original, and the background music and effects were more exciting and fresh than the original.

It was originally created for non-profit purposes and for the fans' ultra-personal purposes, but for me, having played the original game software over and over again, it was quite shocking and more exciting than the original.

There is also a culture of Doujinshi (self-published print works) in comics but rarely, when fans with extraordinary skills find illustrations that are drawn with overwhelming quality than original works, they cannot stop laughing.

I couldn't forget the excitement of fan art that surpasses the original of "HACK ROM", so I came to produce "MEME HACK TOONS"

Basically, they are all hand embroidered.

The time depends on the motif, but sometimes it takes a week.

The criteria for choosing a motif is that when I found a strange, distorted and tasteful motif that I saw in my daily life, I was inspired to alter and shape it.

PROLETA RE ART is a concept that encompasses everything, and is attached to every work.

As the word "REBIRTH & CUSTOMIZE WORN OUT MATERIAL" suggests, it is meant to revive old materials by remaking and vintage processing.

The design is based on the woven name of old American and French work wear.

The design of Uroboros has been a motif since ancient times, and means "death and regeneration" and "immortality"

It is designed to look like Japan's national flag which is JAPAN MADE from a distance.

The design of the tag of Meme is based on the "Providence's eye" as a motif, and it is designed by "hacking" the "eye that looks through all things"

The design is also like a magical camp, with characters and motifs known to everyone being magically hacked (glitched design and vintage treatment) and in a good way intended to confuse the viewer.

So far, we have produced 70 kinds of Uroboros and 40 kinds of memes. They are all one-of-a-kind items.

Basically, I have already used it, and I choose the one with fading or damage.

When you find an individual that has been used by the original owner, and has been used by that person, or has been strongly reflected in his or her humanity, you will be especially motivated to create.

I added a story to it, and accelerated the texture by making full use of remake and vintage processing, and established the design that cannot be used as old clothes as if it existed for a long time.

"Vintage processing".

If the "vintage processing" technique is advanced to the utmost limit, it may have an aura that exceeds the texture of really old clothes.

Altars, sewing, and other technologies have a long history, and advanced equipment and techniques have been established by skilled craftsmen.

However, vintage processing is still a relatively young field, and various processing plants and engineers are constantly updating new technologies by modifying tools around them, changing and applying processing processes.

I have been collecting vintage clothes since a long time ago as I liked them, but I feel uncomfortable with the trend of "Because it is vintage and antique, therefore it is rare and valuable, it is a blessing.", so I think we should adopt vintage clothes as fashion and not handle them as antiques.

Some people have a negative view of "Refreshing used clothes, after all, it's a replica, isn't it?" when they hear vintage processing, but I think vintage processing has the same role as special makeup in movies, and I respect it as a very important element to ensure the taste, story and reality of the work.

I think there are few people who think that special effects makeup of movies is negative.

I don't want to make antique replicas, but I value vintage processing to create works that are reminiscent of aura and stories that no one has ever seen.

I use the word "hacking" to mean that old clothes are vintage processed to accelerate texture, sublimate as a design, and throw a stone in a good way to confuse the values that appreciate original vintage items.

Manual stitching and embroidery are essential elements because they are more uneven in a good sense and have a soft and rustic texture than those done by computer sewing machines.

However, I also like the rigid stitching and the inorganic, accurate straight line and strength that is done with a sewing machine, so I try to combine these elements in a complicated way, and pursue a texture that cannot be produced with only beautiful ready-made products.

In addition, there is no need to worry about "The texture is great, but it may be too brittle to wear in real life ..." like real vintage or antique items, and it maintains a strong strength.

The work was created by only two of us, myself and my partner, and the design was done by myself, but especially for the meme embroidery, the quality is secured by the modeling power of my partner.

My work is very complicated with many processes, especially disassembling old clothes and vintage processing, which are heavy on my body and very difficult.

However, when the work enters the zone and the finished image that I expected is surpassed by the power of craft, I feel great joy and joy.

We don't stop working on the quality of each work until we can update the past.

I think "perfection" is the most important.

No matter how good the concept and design is, if you put it out into the world with a low degree of perfection as a thing, it will easily become a trash work without being conveyed.
In that sense, I am troubled by the current situation in which the craftsmen who shape the ideas of designers are often neglected.
Designers are a great profession, of course, but I think the status of highly skilled craftsmen should be equally guaranteed.

In the future, my partner and I will continue to create alone, and there is no intention of hiring people or expanding the brand to make a big profit.

Rather than that, I think we have to think about how to sell it so that we can update the quality every time in the limited number of production and reach the customers who really want it at the right price.

The concept of PROLETA RE ART, which I mentioned at the beginning, is "those who do not have" repair or wear used clothes and tools, and the painting is distorted but tasteful by a nameless person, but focusing on the "local and personal art" that tends to be overlooked in a familiar place, and if we can create an opportunity to share the sense of value to pay attention to "nameless art" other than the works that are evaluated in a way that is easy to understand in the world, I think that life will become more fun and people will become attached to things, so I am making this every day.