Experience Traditional and Innovative Textile Dyeing with an Eminent Kyoto Dyer Featured in Paris Fashion Week

The Colors of High Fashion

A stone’s throw from Arashiyama’s famed groves of soaring bamboo, ensconced in a quiet residential neighborhood of Eastern Kyoto sits the visually unassuming dyer’s studio called Art Uni. Visitors from across Japan come to experience innovative dyeing techniques drawing upon Kyoto craft tradition. Kiyoshi Nishida, the master dyer behind this operation, has recently achieved a degree of fame with the general public through TV and other media spots – though he was already a major player in the high fashion industry itself.

Art Uni’s workshop space, where high brand fashion is born

With the space-efficiency and order-in-chaos methodology which Japan’s small-to-medium-size manufacturing industry is famous for, Art Uni packs not only an incredible level of production quality into the compact building where it does its dyeing, but an astounding variety of tools, techniques, and capabilities – from traditional silk-screening to its original tegaki-zome and ryusai-zome methods which use hand-brushing and submersion dyeing, respectively. “If there’s one thing I want visitors to take away from a stop here,” jokes Nishida with a gruff chuckle, “it’s that fancy high fashion gets produced in gritty little old places like this.”

Kiyoshi Nishida, the master dyer

“We’ve drawn a lot of influence from the techniques of Kyoto’s suminagashi traditions,” says Nishida, referring to the ancient East Asian art of decorating paper stationary with an aqueous charcoal solution. “I guess ryusai-zome is not far off from what’s referred to as ‘marbling’ overseas, but our specific designs tend to emphasize subtlety through understated color, which makes them evocative of Kyoto and Japanese aesthetics.” Getting to learn and experience using these techniques for yourself under expert guidance – and have your creation to keep – is likely to be a highlight of your whole trip.

Original Art Uni textile designs

Inside the Dyer’s Studio

There is something magical about stepping inside an artisanal workshop full of people who love their craft. Maybe it’s the atmosphere of authenticity that comes from seeing all the tools and materials up close in their natural habitat. Maybe it’s the singular feeling of focus, of the whole space and everyone and everything in it sharing a unified purpose. Whatever it is, for those who appreciate this feeling, Art Uni is a veritable temple of creative energy.

A rare close-up peek into the studio space of a high brand fashion dyer

“This trade is exactly fifty percent based on a rigorous understanding of the equipment and materials, and fifty percent on the intangible sensibilities and inspiration of the people doing it,” says Nishida, and that fascinating juxtaposition of science and art really comes across as you tour the facility, talk to the professionals who work there, and take in the sights and sounds and smells of all the gear and textiles in production.

Nishida’s apprentice Koshimoto giving an in-depth explanation of Art Uni’s silk screening process

An Up-Close Look at the Original Craftwork Behind Paris Fashion Week

Art Uni has handled dye orders for some of the biggest names there are in the fashion world, including pieces featured in the Paris Fashion Week collection. There’s a decent chance you might walk past such pieces hanging above his production floor awaiting their catwalk debuts – our coverage team did, though for obvious reasons we cannot show or name them here. And that’s only a small part of what makes a visit to the studio such an exclusive glimpse behind the curtain. For those with an interest in luxury fashion or its industry, this is a can’t-miss.

The master at work on a tegaki-zome design

What might be even more impressive is watching Nishida himself at work, demonstrating his bokashi-zome (“gradation dyeing”) and tegaki-zome (“hand-drawn dyeing”) up close in person. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to watch a master artist create right before your eyes, you might already know that goosebumps-and-chills feeling of seeing something amazing materialize seemingly out of thin air, where the artist seems more like a conduit channeling visions from another world than a person consciously following the steps of a process. And if you haven’t – well, let Nishida demonstrate what he can do with a brush and a piece of white fabric in mere minutes, and you will. 

The incredible fine gradient work and and understated yet vibrant colors of Art Uni’s bokashi-zome dyeing technique

The Experience of Becoming a Ryusai-zome Flow-dye Artist Yourself — if Only for a Day

When you’ve had your fill of observation, get hands-on with the craft of dyeing yourself. Guests can bring any article of clothing they wish to dye, though color takes and sets differently depending on the characteristics of the clothing in question. 

Pure whites take color best, with lighter beiges and greys also suitable — although they will lend their own tint to the finished color. Fully fabric pieces are ideal. Bits of rubber, leather, or metal will either not take dye at all, or else absorb it only faintly. Thicker fabrics or clothing with many layers or folds like jackets are most complicated to dye, and take the longest time to set. 

Get hands-on and create your own dye pattern with expert guidance from Art Uni’s dyers

“As long as you understand the challenges and potential pitfalls of what you’re working with, we welcome a try at any article of clothing,” says Koshimoto, noting that they have dyed everything from t-shirts to hoodies to sneakers for visitors from across Japan drawn to the studio by its television fame. For an additional fee, guests may also choose to have Art Uni prepare a white shawl, t-shirt, or high-top tabi-style sneakers for them on-site instead of bringing their own article of clothing.

No matter what you opt for, A professional dyer from the Art Uni staff is by your side for every step of the process from choosing colors to preparing the various solutions and workstations involved, and providing expert guidance on the actual dyeing techniques. Just relax and let your creativity flow, having fun with the process.

The moment of truth, when color solution and plain fabric meet to become something new

A Rare Chance to Experience Textile Production – and the Fashion Industry as Never Before

When your work has been dyed, hand it off to an Art Uni professional for final processing and to take its place at the drying station. Guests dyeing simpler items like shawls, bandanas, handkerchiefs, or light t-shirts who plan to be in or pass through the area later in the same day or the next are welcome to pick up their completed pieces and take them with them after they are dried. For more complex articles of clothing or for guests who do not plan to return to Art Uni, finished pieces will be shipped after they are ready.

A visitor creation after Koshimoto gives it the finishing touches of rinsing and heat-drying

Witnessing your creative vision take shape, giving life to previously unremarkable plain cloth through high-level original artisanal techniques that draw on traditional Kyoto artforms, is the perfect culmination of this delightful foray into the inner workings of the world of high fashion textile manufacturing and processing. Woven into the rich tapestry of Kyoto’s historical, cultural, and natural landscapes – right around the corner from Arashiyama’s bamboo groves and the gorgeous wooden temple of Koryuji – Art Uni is sure to be an unexpected discovery you’ll remember for years to come.