So many foreign customers asked the owner of Good Day Books in central Tokyo where they could buy the traditional clothing she and her brother wore for work that she put on her thinking cap. "Samue" -- originally designed as work clothes for Buddhist monks -- are made in Japanese sizes only; even if the large size is OK width-wise, the arms and legs tend to be too short.
Toward the end of last year, Good Day's Taeko Kobayashi approached a friend living in Ota Ward ("we both went to the same health club") who makes clothes from recycled fabrics and sells them under the label Sakura at Hankyu department store in Oimachi. Would Kiyoko Nakano be interested in making traditional samue to order for large-size "gaijin"?
The answer was yes, at least in theory, because here we all are, one hour before the shop is due to open at 11 a.m. Taeko has even dragged her husband and colleague, Steve Kott, in on the act to model a sample pair of samue, which are made in this instance from recycled indigo-dyed slub silk.