Making Nuno - an exhibition in London of Japanese textile innovation by designer Sudō Reiko from May 17 - July 11, 2021

With the easing of lockdowns making way for a gradual return to “normal” life, many public spaces in the UK are gratefully hosting visitors once again, even indoors.

One of the textile installations at the Making Nuno exhibition currently held in Japan House London.
Photos by Lucia Carpio for MyFashionConnectGlobal.

One of these is the delightfully zen and modern Japan House London in the heart of fashionable Kensington which launched in its much anticipated Making Nuno exhibition that was  postponed a few months ago due to pandemic restrictions.  The exhibition will continue until July 11th 2021.

The exhibition showcases the innovative work of textile designer Sudō Reiko, and celebrates the Japanese designer’s creativity and passion in pushing the boundaries of laborious textile production and championing new methods of manufacture, with particular focus on the sustainability of materials and regional craftsmanship.

Textile designer Sudō Reiko in the Nuno design firm as depicted in one of the videos accompanying
the Japan House London Making Nuno exhibition.

Sudō, trained as a textile and industrial designer, has been Design Director of leading textile design firm NUNO for over 30 years and she designs fabrics that incorporate traditions of Japanese crafts with new engineering techniques and unusual combinations of diverse materials, from silk to hand-made washi (Japanese paper) nylon tape and thermoplastic, and technologies derived from Japanese hand craft traditions such as caustic burning, weaving and dying.  Her inspiring designs are currently housed in collections around the world, including in MoMA in New York and in the V&A in London.

Under the Art direction of Saitō Seiichi of Panoramatiks (formerly Rhizomatiks Architecture) a spotlight is shone on creativity that combine nature and tradition, interwoven with technology.

The exhibition includes five large-scale installations of Sudō’s work with the manufacturing processes cleverly brought to life through materials in situ and the presence of visuals projected onto light boxes to create realistic simulations. Visitors are introduced to a variety of thought-provoking processes from washi-dyeing to chemical lace embroidery inspired by rolls of paper. Each installation is accompanied by drawings and sketches, alongside raw materials and design prototypes. 

The experience to this exhibition is enhanced also by a collection of  immersive short films by art director Saitō Seiichi, featuring exclusive footage of the making of Nuno textiles, produced in collaboration with family-run factories and craftspeople in various regions across Japan, from Gunma to Yamagata, Fukui, Shiga, Yamanashi, Wakayama and Kyoto. 

The films showing textile mills in the prefectures of Gunma, Yamagata, Fukui, Shiga, and Yamanashi were first featured as part of the successful show in 2019 at the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) in Hong Kong, while the videos filmed in Wakayama and Kyoto are screened for the first time at Japan House London.

These videos, totaling 40 minutes,  show the day-to-day operation of machinery by factory workers and technicians.  Without dialogue nor narration, the intense sound of the machinery and the dynamism of the technology behind NUNO’s production processes give viewers fascinating insights of the production processes.  

Various samples of the textiles including finished products such as scarfs are found in the retail shop of Japan House London  on the ground level.

Full information and booking of free tickets of MAKING NUNO Japanese Textile Innovation from Sudō Reiko exhibition can be found on the Japan House London website.