What I wanted to make was not works of art, but products.

FUKUBORI today has two lines: FUKUBORI Archive, and FUKUBORI.

Why two? I am writing down how it came to be, just this once.

It began with the original patterns, as they were

The garments FUKUBORI has released so far have valued staying as close to the source as possible.

Dig vintage, dissect it, read its structure. Raise what was read exactly as it was read. Add no color. Change no specification. I believed that was honesty toward the structures we had unearthed.

For several seasons, that is how we released clothing.

What I want to make is a product, not a work

Along the way, something became clear.

What I want to make is not works of art, but products.

Not clothes to be displayed, but clothes to be worn. Not for special occasions, but clothes that enter daily life. Clothes with color, within reach, functioning inside a life — the voices asking for such clothing were real, and they confirmed a conviction I already held.

It was an inevitable path.

There are garments that a lump of our ego can never deliver.

Translate the structure, without erasing it

So I decided to translate.

The structure is not erased. Editing is done only to translate it into the present. That is FUKUBORI.

Then is the Archive a body of works?

No. It is research.

Preserving a structure as close to its original state as possible has meaning as research. Composing everything in undyed ecru, printing the grid on the inner body — what resides there is not expression, but a patternmaker's pride.

Research digs; the product translates

Research digs, and the product translates. Neither stands above the other; neither comes first. The two form a single cycle.

Questions found midway through translation return to the next inquiry.

Not works, but products. Products, without ever stopping the research.

That is what the two lines are for.

The definitions of the two lines are set down in the BRAND PHILOSOPHY.

We keep digging.