🌷 What is Arta Asiatica 🌷
Arta Asiatica is a fashion brand that brings traditional Japanese designs for modern everyday life. Our Japanese fashion store honors artisans and respects the ethnic traditional arts by bringing thoughtful designs to those who are not afraid of expressing themselves.
🌷 Our Values and Beliefs 🌷
We believe that fashion can be enjoyed in an ethical way. Human rights and environment are being violated every day because of “Fast fashion” which has to stop. By bringing awareness, we can make a wiser choice in what we buy, and YOU have the power to do that.
Also, we believe in doing business is the most sustainable way to drive impact into making a better world. For every piece you buy, we can donate a portion of net sales to Roomtoread to help children in developing countries to focus on literacy and get gender equality in education to reach their full potential and contribute to their community and the world.
We are committed to making a sustainable, versatile, and thoughtfully designed piece that’s good for both you and artisans. If you have seen “The True Cost” documentary about Fast Fashion, you might have questions as we do when it comes to how products are made, such as:
Who makes each piece? Are they in safe working environments, and are they paid living wages? Where is everything made? What materials are used and from where are they sourced? ...and the list goes on.
We do our utmost to ensure complete transparency with what is happening behind the scenes. The relationships we built with artisans, designers and suppliers are built upon trust, guaranteeing the beauty of Japanese art arrives at your doorstep in the most ethical way.
🌷 How Arta Asiatica Started 🌷
🌸 Love for Traditional Japanese Art 🌸
Hi, I am Miyuki (read as "me-YOU-key"), founder of Arta Asiatica. I am living in Nagoya, Japan. I love the city of Nagoya, which has a rich history, the culture of the Tokugawa era, and lots of tea ceremony events. It fills me with happiness to be around so many coffee lovers and, most of all, visiting Osu-Kannon.
This is the place where I came across Kimono Antiques. Filled with beautiful colors and patterns, each piece has its own story and drama. Some have a modern feel, while others fill you with nostalgia. Just by looking at them you can experience the flow of time.
There is a sense of elegance, a refined quality of gracefulness that is so appealing to me. This is the beauty of Japanese art design to me. It is just like the Japanese beauty ( 日本の美 ), the Yamato Nadeshiko ( 大和撫子 ), and the Samurai ( 侍 ); they are influential, clever and strong. Arta Asiatica creates a unique way to express the style of traditional Japan for modern everyday life.
🌸 Life-Changing Event 🌸
In the southern part of Nagoya city, we have a small town called “Arimatsu” that is famous for its kimono and textile wholesalers and “shibori” or tie-dye craftspeople. Arimatsu is famous for high-quality shibori textiles which has started in 1600 by eight families.
Not knowing any details about this town, I decided to visit and attend the Arimatsu Shibori festival one day. I’ve noticed there are many old people making shibori textiles. Every shibori crafters have their own 1 pattern that only they can make. This pattern has been taken over for hundreds of years from their families. Unfortunately, the younger generation doesn’t want to inherit this traditional craft and lots of patterns are gone because of it.
On that same day, I met Mr. Murase, the creative director of the world-famous shibori textile fashion brand, “Suzusan”. He is the fifth generation who successfully continue their legacy. He explained to me how cheap mass production is killing craftsmanship nowadays.
This encounter made me decide to create Arta Asiatica as a way to express the beauty of Japanese art to all over the world by getting inspiration from artisans (including myself).