Axel II: Inspired by Sashiko

After pur­chas­ing a vin­tage kimono, we were in awe of the metic­u­lous stitch­ing tra­vers­ing from high­ly dec­o­ra­tive designs to sim­pler, durable embroidery.

Sashiko, a form of dec­o­ra­tive hand-stitch­ing from Japan, was tra­di­tion­al­ly used to rein­force worn-out clothes. The tech­nique pieced togeth­er fab­rics to make new gar­ments by using sim­ple run­ning stitches.

Seek­ing to cre­ate a mod­ern inter­pre­ta­tion of Sashiko, we paired a base of our leather-look pat­tern East Vil­lage with an over­lay of nylon stitch­ing in a criss­crossed grid.

While the prac­tice tra­di­tion­al­ly con­sists of white cot­ton thread on indi­go cloth, we extend­ed our trans­la­tion to include a con­tem­po­rary palette con­sist­ing of high-con­trast neu­trals and play­ful primaries.

Axel II meets all ACT per­for­mance stan­dards for coat­ed fab­rics, includ­ing excel­lent abra­sion resis­tance, col­or­fast­ness, and coat­ing adhesion.