From a long time ago we made do by being able to share many things among friends
like taking 1 CD and all of us would dub it to tape
or expensive foreign magazines and videos passed around and observed.

The archive at the atelier is something I still reply upon to this day.
Things can get pulled out during casual conversation and also at times
it gets used as necessary material for projects.
Depending on its flowing, there are times when customers who come here are handed something as a gift from the designer.
An environment where you can see or listen freely
helps out also in sharing the consciousness of working together.

In these times you can grab everything from the internet like music and video and borrowing and lending CDs might become less frequent compared to before,
but it seems sharing things with people is something that will keep going on.

Naoyuki Inoue / Production

Snack Bar

This is located where people frequently pass by in the atelier.
When you get a little hungry in the afternoon, or even good for guests.

Right now it is full with gifts and presents from various people but to keep it like this everyday, it requires a little attention. Depending on the snack, the consumption rate differs and the staff’s tastes vary. If you leave it alone thinking “someone will take care of it”
it turns barren quick
so you have to take care of it in a timely manner.

Attention and care like this is not something unrelated to our regular work. Actually, I think it is a job that can be done only after realizing small things.

Naoyuki Inoue / Production

This is about the camouflage from this season called ERDL.
Since it has gone on sale, here at the atelier almost everyday
someone is wearing some kind of item with this.

The point you can call ERDL’s characteristic
is how between the patterns the borders are like a misprint
unevenly overlapping and this portion becomes an intermediate color
the overall pattern loses its sharpness
and ends up looking blurry overall;
the most difficult camouflage for us up to now in the manufacturing process.
At a glance it may seem like woodland camo,
but if you look close you realize it is something completely different.

We really do not know if ERDL back then was purposely developed that way
or if it ended up the way it is from technical issues;
nowadays it is considered good if the borders do not overlap with no colors fading
so it was difficult to do the exact opposite of modern print technology
and this was made after experimenting many times with printing and washing.

Also by repeating the process by wearing and washing
the side stitching of the grids
get ridges and the colors of the whole piece fade thinner;
it starts to fit your body and you feel a special attachment.
The degree of completion is high even compared to other WTAPS’ camo.

Yukiyoshi Shimada / Production

This is about last Friday.
To gather the materials for the next Spring/Summer exhibition,
the designer and I went to the materials supplier.

Usually most of the swatches I see
the material is about the size of a post card
on a base that is roughly A4 size.
Compared to this, what you can see at the materials supplier
is on a hanger and larger.
Out of these, some have been washed and there are even some sewn in a roll;
it is possible to see with an image closer to what it will be as a product.
Also, they have all the swatches so
there is the advantage of seeing all of it at the same time.

This time before the process of elimination, from the gathering time,
the designer joined in so time was saved
and this made it possible to add this time to where it was needed.

Yukiyoshi Shimada / Production

A person appears who is a lot younger than yourself but is really impressive;
in any field of work
and no matter what age you become, I think this is something that always happens.

You are lucky if someone like this shows up
while your body and mind is still flexible.
So just sit back and watch.
They probably are doing something that is excitingly new.
You might even realize what you have forgotten to do.

But the opposite of this is when your mind and body is not flexible anymore
and from giving up or through guilt from what you did not do
it becomes a form of jaundice
ignoring them or not being able to acknowledge them;
in extreme cases finding fault being high and mighty and interfering.

Mistaking youth and noobness is something only acceptable by the youth.
We should not brush off their youth with noobness.
This is not something vital for them,
but I think it probably is for us.

Naoyuki Inoue / Production