Monday, August 29th. It is honor to introduce you RAINMAKER founder/designer Koichi Watanabe’s thoughts and concepts for the collection, details on the collaboration items, and information on the video presentation produced this time.

Concept of Rainmaker Spring Summer 2023 Collection

The inspiration for this Spring Summer 2023 collection is deriving from imaginary portrait of a person who has hidden strength in a quiet attitude.

While based on masculine tailoring, Rainmaker have developed a collection with light elegance by using soft and supple materials and coloring.

The collection also unveils new items with oriental costume motifs such as new coats and jackets with kimono-based forms, leather jackets and pullover shirts with frog buttons. It is always the core concept of Rainmaker to create contemporary interpretations of traditional Japanese garments as well as nods to classic tailoring from the west.

The color palette of the collection is based on monotones of white, black, and gray, and consists of several shades of green.

For the original textiles produced in collaboration with MILESTONES, Rainmaker used subtle and profound colors based on the spring and summer obi designs from Hosoo’s heritage archive collection of Nishijin-ori.

The first part of the runway show starts with calm colors that make feel the freshness of greenery and moss, and to the last part is structured to fill in the collection with the colors of spring and summer reminds of flowers, rivers, and Japanese gardens.

Merger of Video, Music with RAINMAKER garments, and the concept of “Base and Place”

The RAINMAKER’s seasonal runway show, which has been presented in the form of “video” since the fall/winter season of 2021,

further expands the world of RAINMAKER, which the designer Koichi Watanabe has expressed with “clothes” to the extent of approaching the “beauty of Japan” that lies at the root of the designer’s thoughts, he goes beyond the framework of fashion and realizes cultural and artistic expressions.

The movie presentation is directed by photographer Taro Mizutani, who has been taking its lead for since the 2021 autumn/winter season. The styling is arranged by Hidero Nakagane that draws out the maximum potential of RAINMAKER’s garments, and the power of a place with cultural value in Kyoto, which is the base of the brand where the shooting is set, are combined in a perfect balance to create into one beautiful video.

Fusion with musician Eiko Ishibashi

The 23SS runway show is graced with a special music from Kyoto-based electronic musician [KND] and the cutting-edge three-piece band [Kukangendai]. Music has become an inseparable existence to express the brand itself and the mood of the season. The 2023 spring/summer collection runway show will also feature the piano performance of composer Eiko Ishibashi herself, who is known for her theatrical works of the theater company Mum and Gypsy, and the music for the anime “Infinite Resident -IMMORTAL-” and the Academy award winning movie “Drive My Car”. Set in Kyoto City’s Kyocera Museum of Art, her piano performance fuses with the aforementioned three elements of visual beauty, styling, and location, bringing the expression of RAINMAKER’s collection to even greater heights.

Eiko Ishibashi born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan-based electronic musician and composer. Produces music for stage performances, movies, and exhibitions, works and improvises as a singer/songwriter, writes for other musicians, and also participates in numerous works and live performances as a performer. In recent years, she has been in charge of theatrical productions of the theater company Mum and Gypsy, the animation “Infinite Resident -IMMORTAL-“, and the music of the Academy winning movie “Drive My Car”. Her latest work for 2022 is “For McCoy” released by Black Truffle.

RAINMAKER SPRING SUMMER 2023 COLLABORATORS

MILESTONES

MILESTONES is a collaborative project which started in 2014 between prestigious Nishijin-ori textile mill Hosoo (founded in 1688) and Kyoto University of the Arts.

By digitally archiving and analyzing over 20,000 kimono and obi designs preserved by Hosoo throughout generations, the project explores the intersection of heritage with contemporary design.

MILESTONES aim is to preserve an archive of Nishijin textile patterns for future generations in order to safeguard the history of dyeing and weaving in Japan, as well as to further develop the patterns into various forms with a mix of new and dynamic sensibilities of the younger generations.

The unique peacock pattern you see in the collection is a collaboration with MILESTONES, an industry-academia collaborative project between historical textile mill Hosoo and Kyoto University of the Arts. Based on the peacock pattern from the archive collection of Hosoo, a new unique graphic is created for this season through the creative use of coloring, resizing and trimming.

Within the SS23 collection, the graphic is printed onto an original textile made of high-quality supple and soft touch decin material.

Wrangler

In 1947, Wrangler was born for the western wear field from Blue Bell in the US. Although it was not the pioneer to launch jeans, the label appointed Rodeo Ben for the project, who was in charge of custom tailoring for Hollywood movies at the time. Because of its high fashionability, the brand immediately took its lead in jeans industry and was supported by cowboys and western fans over the United States, and have been creating a number of models closely related to the lifestyle of fans. Wrangler has created masterpieces with its roots in the time-honored history of work wear established by Blue Bell. There was a stance that always considered the comfort of working people. This identity that has been nurtured over a long history is still alive, and continues to be loved as a lifestyle brand by western fans and jeans fans around the world.

In our first collaboration with Wrangler, we created a cowboy jacket.

Based on the label’s masterpiece “11MJZ” jacket, the jacket is restructured with the original collar design and fitting, while maintaining its symbolic details.

In addition to the denim material, the jacket is also available in the similar type of material that has a suit-like look.

By combining 3 tops styles and 4 bottoms within the collaboration made from the same material, a wide range of stylings can be enjoyed.

All images courtesy of Rainmaker

PR in house Rainmaker