2014년 12월 26일 금요일

An interview with Ichikawa Takahide

White snows all over the world.

When we visited Ichikawa this December, the world was full of white snows. Nakashima Mika's famous song 'Yuki no Hana' (Flower of Snow) I might have been humming, yes definitely I was humming the song.  It was such a winter day that suited well heavy coats, winter boots, warm hands, hot coffee and the Yuki no Hana. We drove the snowy roads for several hours and reached a small town in Fukui Prefecture. A middle aged man with mustache was waiting for us. With full of white smile on his face, he slowly walked out when he found us. Childlike smiling eyes and calm voice were impressive. It was Ichikawa Takahide.

Sabae City in Fukui Prefecture, Japan
Fukui Prefecture is the core of  eyeglasses industry in Japan. The City Sabae in Fukui is known to produce 90% of Japanese domestic eyeglasses. Ichikawa introduced the City Sabae to us. We expected numerous machines, factories, workers in uniforms, however it was rather a fairy tale small town surrounded with magnificent mountains.    


He offered us some teas. And we asked him some questions. 



1. Why did you choose eyeglasses for your work? And he replied as below.

"Well, when someone has a conversation with you then he will glance your face... normally. Of course someone could see other parts of your body, but in many cases, people see each others face when they talk. On the other words, if you want to make yourself look better to others, then you should pay more attention to your face. Eyeglasses are the very suitable items for such purpose. They can make you look better literally and they can make you look better to the people around you at the same time. That's why I see the eyeglasses as fashion items, that why I chose the eyeglasses for my work."

2. What is the main characteristic of your eyeglasses? 


"The arms of eyeglasses get older, just like people. They change their colors when they are used for a long time. Old eyeglasses might seem ugly with stains of their surfaces. However under the surfaces of TIME, beautiful colors of tanned wood are hidden. The tanning effect is not so well known to many people. Only few customers becomes to know that their Sagawafujii eyeglasses have such beautiful colors. To see the tanned eyeglasses well, you should polish them well. And to polish the arms of eyeglasses, you need some equipment. That might be the reason that only few of our customers know the true colors of their eyeglasses. We provide such polishing services for our customers."


3.  Wooden Eyeglasses?

Ichikawa Takahide
 "Front parts of Sagawafujii are not made of Wood. Actually they are acetate sheets. All wooden eyeglasses including front parts, we are planning to work out in the next year. Acetate sheets are probably the most beautiful materials for producing eyeglasses. They are glossy, have beautiful and various colors. You might have seen the Sagawafujii Sunglasses f2757 103, f2757 105. Such colors are attainable only from acetate sheets."





f2757 103


 "Acetate sheets are hard to work with. Complicated building process demands skilled craftsmen's delicate handwork. So acetate eyeglasses are expensive than ordinary machine processed eyeglasses."



4. No commercials for Brand Sagawafujii?

 "We don't pay much money to commercial advertisement. I believe good items can advertise themselves. For us our customers are our the only ways to advertise our wooden eyewears. I don't think a good brand is the brand that is successful in making it's name known to many people. That is not the point. A brand that makes good products can make it's name known to many people. That is the point. 
Of course the Sagawafujii couldn't be said as a successful brand for now, it is still growing brand. But slowly it goes on it's way and proves itself to be worth of successful brand by it's goods, not by the commercials."



5. Your next items?
"Naturalism is one of our brand philosophies. Until now, we expressed it by wooden temples(arms of eyeglasses). And for coming 2015, Sagawafujii's main items would be Steel plate eyeglasses. Steel is more artificial material than wood. It represents human civilization. So we can say that by transferring from Wood to Steel, Sagwafujii come a little bit closer to the nature of Human from that of Nature. 
We've been always trying to do something unique, to make something special. This one would be the very turning point of Sagawafujii and be remembered as one of the most unique items ever among all Sagawafujiis."




2014년 8월 20일 수요일

Sagawafujii's Wooden Sunglasses

Sagawafujii is an Eyewear brand. 

And it builds all it's products by human hands. Someday I might have a chance of introducing the procedure of building eyeglasses frames, but it's not today. (Sagawafujii has never revealed the building procedure of it's items, so if you saw some photos or pictures of such a procedure then it's not from Sagawafujii) I want to show more of the Sagawafujii's Eyeglasses and Sunglasses first. With a few exception they are all named by numbers like 'f1703 201'. The first letter 'f' means that the Eyewear is made of wood and acetate. When a name begins with 's' instead of 'f', then it means the Eyewear is made of acetate only. Below is the f1703 201(s). 

                        

This is the f1703 201(s). The last letter (s) means Sunglasses. 



<a model wearing f1703 201(s). Guessing by his clothing it was winter or late autumn, when this photo was taken. It's not so surprising these days, that some people wear sunglasses regardless of the season>

  F1703 201(s) is one of the most favored Sunglasses items of Sagawafujii this season. Many people loved it's unique styles. Wooden temples (As I said before 'temples' mean 'legs of eyeglasses', not buildings for religious purpose.) of the Sunglasses make them look something more than just an ordinary Eyewear. However comparing with other Sagawafujii's Sunglasses, we can say that f1703 201(s) is little bit understated in colors.









This is another Sagawafujii, f3201 104. Bold temples (eyeglasses legs), splendid color patterns in frame characterize this masterpiece-like eyewear. The color patterns of the frame seem like universe I think. And with close look you can find twinkling little dots on the surface of the frame. They are not dust, of course. They are something like little pieces of pearls contained in the frame. When I first saw these Sunglasses, I thought that these Sunglasses resembled the Universe with tiny stars in it. 



<a side view of f3201 104. Strong hinges are attached.>


  The designer's name 'Ichikawa Takahide' is carved on the temple(eyeglasses leg) and we can see the beautiful grain patterns of natural ebony wood. All temples (eyeglasses legs) are not same with others. Like finger prints. If you have never experienced wooden glasses and want to look different, then I recommend you these Sagawafujii's wooden Eyeglasses. I bet this could be one of your best choices in fashion items. 

  If you want to know more about Sagawafujii's Wooden Eyeglasses and Sunglasses, visit it's website www.sagawafujii.com





2014년 8월 7일 목요일

Eyeglasses, Sunglasses Shop of Sagawafujii

Sagawafujii is an Eyewear Brand. 

It has it's own shops in several places over the world. Today I introduce you some of Sagawafujii's eyeglasses, sunglasses shops.





Sagawafujii's Exclusive Shop in 'Hong Dae'. By the Wood Rings Logo at the signboard, you will know that this is a genuine shop of Sagawafujii.


  Above is a Sagawafujii's Exclusive Shop in  Mapogu Seoul, Republic of Korea. 'Exclusive' means that it only deals with Sagawafujii's Eyeglasses and Sunglasses. In Korea it is quite hard to find an eyeglasses shop that treats just one brand. Absolutely many of them have various and large inventories of eyewear products from various brands. Those shops choose items for their sales by their own judgement. How well will the items they chose be selling is the only consideration for their choices. So, brands are many, but items of a brand introduced are limited.

 As the Hong Ik University is locating near, the store  is usually called as 'Sagawafujii Hong Dae Store' among people in that region. (The word 'Hong Dae' is an abbreviation of 'Hong Ik University' in Korean language, sometimes it means just the university, but in many cases when people say 'Hong Dae', it means the region near Hong Ik university)  The street is full of young people all the time everywhere, even when it is very late night time. You might easily see young people enjoying the night as if they will never meet the day called 'tomorrow'. Most of them are university students I think. They get dressed well and seem to know how to express themselves more stylish or fashionable. Koreans do think 'Hong Dae' as a street of fashion.




  This is the inside of Sagawafujii Hong Dae Store. The walls are covered with log woods, as wood represents the identity of Sagawafujii. The photo of Sagawafujii's model wearing f2901 401t is hanging on the wall. (at the left side of this picture above) She is not a professional, but an ordinary woman, who once came to Hong Dae with her friends, and became the famous model of Sagawafujii.  As I said, there are many people who know the fashion and styles in Hong Dae region.




The inside view of the same store. 

  As this is an Exclusive Shop of Sagawafujii, it deals all kind of Sagawafujii. You can find any of items listed at the website (www.sagawafujii.com) in the store. They are various, but not many in quantity. Sagawafujii's all products are handmade only, so there could be some limitation in stock. One of the customers of Sagawafujii waited for almost one year to get the item she wanted, and finally she did today. It is not a rare case for Sagawafujii, but what important is that Sagawafujiis are worth for such a waiting. 







2014년 8월 5일 화요일

Wooden eyewear of Sagawafujii

  Many of Sagawafujii's eyeglasses are made of Wood. So they are different from the ordinary eyeglasses made of plastics or metals.  Many of them are manufactured in factories. They look exactly same with each others as they are produced by machine.

  Sagawafujii's eyewears are not like that. They are all handmade, and no Sagawafujii in the world have the same appearance with others. In a word to speak, they are all unique.





  This is Sagawfujii's sunglasses numbered, f2757 105, with brownish color of frame that varies along with the lines of the frame and wooden temples(eyeglasses' legs).  Wooden temples are made of ebony. They are strong, beautiful and change their colors when used for a long period of time, just like old wooden furniture does.









 Hinges of f2757 105 are firmly fixed and connect the frame and the temples. Quintuple joints of the hinge enable eyewears to preserve their structural stability so long time. Brand name 'Sagawafujii' is engraved at the temple, so is the designer's name too.

  A japanese designer, Ichikawa Takahide is the beginning of Sagawafujii. He was inspired from old, used leather works while he was worked as a lead designer in Japan. He found that scratches of used leather were favored by his customers, and the work pieces made of such used leather pieces  sold better than those of new ones. He applied the scratches to the frames of eyeglasses. So began Sagawafujii's history.


  Back to f2757 105 again, here you can see the front image of f2757 105.


  Sagawafujii's brand name is printed on the edge of a lens. As to the lenses of f2757 105, they are CR39, almost completely opaque in ultra violet range, and show good durability against  frictions.  


  For more detailed information on Sagawafujii, visit Sagawafujii's website below.






Harmony with Nature, Sagawafujii wishes always your best happiness and satisfaction in choices for fashion items.








2014년 7월 24일 목요일

Sagawafujii attended the Capsule!



  Capsule tradeshow is one of the most famous fashion shows in the world. Thousands of people all around the world gather to see the latest trends of fashion items. This time it opened it's venue at the Basketball city in New York. 

   Since the launch of the show in 2007 it provided many 'innovative fashion designers' of the world the channel  through that they can find the 'best retailers and influential fashion editors'. 




Capsule venue's entrance.  The Show began at 10:00 AM, and as it is before the opening it looks little bit quiet and calm. 
  



Sagawafujii's booth. About 80 kinds of glasses and sunglasses were displayed at the booth. It is still before the opening. Taking photos at the show was strictly forbidden, especially photography of another brands. So we had to take these pictures while there were no visitors not to make trouble or any inconvenience to the people of neighboring brands.



Did I said how many glasses we brought to the capsule show?  Oh, yes, about 80 kinds of glasses. 

Actually we had a big trouble at an airport, that is to say, we almost lost all our items at the airport. Our products were missing for 24 hours, we couldn't find them anywhere at the cargo of the airport. We found them at the end but some of our glasses were still missing.  We took the plane with exactly 80 items but we displayed them with some of the items missing. 




  Capsule introduced sagawafujii's sunglasses f2757 103, what a kind editor capsule is! However one thing to be corrected is the explanation under the photo. It says that sagawafujii's drawing inspiration was from ancient wooden temples, but there is no relationship between the ancient temples and our products. The legs of eyeglasses are usually called temples, and many of sagawafujii's temples are made of wood, so we emphasized sagawafujiis temples(glasses legs). There must be some misunderstanding between Capsule and Sagawafujii. Still it is a great pleasure to us that our glasses were indroduced at the main page of the capsule show.






This is an invitation file for the show. Sagawafujii's logo is put at the center.


We had a really nice experience at the Capsule show, nice people, various kinds of fashion items, we could get the information of latest fashion trends of the world. Next time capsule opens 4th venue of 2014 shows at Las Vegas through 12 - 14 september. Hope you join and see the latest trends of world fashion too!


2014년 6월 26일 목요일

Who is Sagawafujii?

Sagawafujii is an eyewear brand.

But who actually is Sagawafujii? Many of you may have questions on who this man called Sagawafujii is. This article is to give you some interesting answers regarding the brand name 'Sagawafujii'. 

An ordinary Japanese man who happen to encounter a man called Sagawafujii may be little bit confused and some daring one would say 'ふざけるな!(this Japanese sentence has a pronunciation like 'Fuzakeruna' and means 'Are you kidding me?')  Well to such ordinary Japanese people the word 'Sagawafujii' sounds quite weird. It is because the word 'Sagawafujii' is not a name for one real person but the combination of two surnames from different personalities.


A Japanese designer Ichikawa Takahide, who worked as a leading designer in leather workshops in Japan, is the origin of the eyeglasses frames' brand 'Sagawafujii'. And the workshops he worked for had the names 'Sagawa' and 'Fujii'. The work of intentional scratches on the glasses frames of some models of Sagawafujii is from one of his ideas gained during his leather works period. He liked the beauties of nature, so wanted to make his works be more like the nature. His eyewears are the result of his long time contemplation on the true beauty of the nature. Wood as materials for his eyeglasses pieces he chose, as he thought that wood could reveal the beauty of the nature he wanted to express, and his choice seems until now quite successful. With peerless wooden temples (the word 'temples' means the arms of eyeglasses) Sagawafujii's eyewears are all unique. No pairs on earth have the same patterns of colors or shapes of grains. Like any other living creatures Sagawafujii's wooden temples get old when used. And change their colors.

Darkened temples of eyeglasses reflects the times it get through.  They are covered with dirt and seem to have lost all the praiseworthy beauties that they once had. However there are surely another beauties under the layer of dirts and darkness. Polished old temples show distinctive colors of nature that has been concealed. And that is one reason why Ichikawa chose wood to make his eyeglasses frames. The scratches on the surfaces of eyeglasses make them look like genuine wood pieces. People like this scratches. Many chose scrached eyeglasses than glossy ones. Probably they had some sympathy for the beauties of nature. Ichikawa's scratches(these are called as 'wooden texture') aroused broad sympathy from many enthusiasts of nature. It is undoubted fact that followed by the ebony and rose wooden temples, this wooden texture allowed Sagawafujii some popularity in the markets of eyeglasses frames.  And then some people who don't have any relation with Ichikawa or Sagawafujii began to pretend Sagawafujii.

For foreign customers Sagawafujii's website www.sagawafujii.com is the only option to purchase the eyeglasses.  The photo of a woman wearing wooden glasses is so famous among people who bought the Sagawafujii and posted on the said website of authentic Sagawafujii. 

This woman is said to explain many ideas of the brand. Brushed hairs, white-powdered face and rouged lips are apparent evidences of a date.  And she wears spectacles not to see her boy friend well but to be seen as a beautiful woman by him. The spectacles bring her back to the pre-industrial times, when no one has cellphones and had to write letters to tell one's feeling to another in the distance. The wooden temples(the arms of eyeglasses) doesn't seem to be optional. They seem to be chosen to make the eyeglasses because the nowadays plastics are not attainable. Sagawafujii might yearn for such times when people had more chance of meeting each other face to face and more chance of savoring the beauties of nature. That is the Sagawafujii, and that is the idea of Ichikawa Takahide.

Sagawafujii's glasses are all unique just like you