TYPE-Ⅳ Yuma Kano project
Untitled (Some Rust III #100–279), 2022 © Gottingham Image courtesy of
ISSEY MIYAKE INC., Studio Yumakano and Studio Xxingham
The “TYPE-Ⅳ Yuma Kano project” is in collaboration with up-and-coming designer Yuma Kano.
In the long history of manufacturing, rust has rarely been seen as a positive attribute to the process. However, a closer look reveals a variety of startlingly beautiful patterns and complex mixtures of color. Rust patterns, which would normally be overlooked by most people, have been given new value through the addition of Kano’s perspective and ideas.
Kano’s exemplary work “Rust Harvest” is an original project that uses a novel technique of transferring rust from rusted metal plates onto acrylic resin. Using natural elements such as sunlight, rain, soil, and seawater, Kano cultivates rust on metal plates with his own hands. He then removes only the rust, allowing the metal plates to create another crop of rust. The rust patterns are thus “harvested” in a process similar to an agricultural cycle.
This project featured the release of a one-of-a-kind pair of jeans developed from the idea of Kano’s masterpiece “Rust Harvest.”
Denim jeans have become an indispensable part of our modern lives. They are garments that soften and change color each time they are worn. These are valuable changes that enable the wearer to look back and savor the time and experiences they have accumulated while wearing them. A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE detected new value in what Kano was bringing to rust and its high affinity with jeans, which brought this project to fruition.
Untitled (Some Rust III #311), 2022 © Gottingham Image courtesy of
ISSEY MIYAKE INC., Studio Yumakano and Studio Xxingham
TYPE-Ⅳ
The TYPE-IV project launches five-pocket jeans featuring a woven rust pattern design. By rusting a metal plate with denim pattern lines engraved on its surface in various environments, an unexpectedly beautiful rust pattern prompted by the pattern lines is successfully “harvested.” Polyester was used for the material’s warp, and cotton with two different thicknesses was used for the weft. The thickness of the cotton threads and the complex weave structure express the three-dimensional appearance of rust.
Untitled (Some Rust III #133–261), 2022 © Gottingham Image courtesy of
ISSEY MIYAKE INC., Studio Yumakano and Studio Xxingham
Comment from Yuma Kano
Imagining creation
Everything started when I saw a single painting in Daikanyama in the fall of 2020. The “painting” was actually in the form of clothing woven with thread in seven vivid colors. It was “TADANORI YOKOO ISSEY MIYAKE 0.” It was truly a fusion of the joy of looking at a painting and the fun of wearing clothes.
I started my experimental project “Rust Harvest” in 2016. Since then, I have continued to present the results of my research as furniture and interior design products. In the course of this project, I recognized anew the beauty of rust patterns. In the back of my mind, I wondered if I could apply this beauty to some other genre. Amidst this, I came across the aforementioned “painting.” I wondered what could be created by combining this weaving technique with the beauty of rust. At that moment, I began to “imagine creation.”
As we showed each other our past creations and explored what we could collaborate on, we did not decide on a release date or what we would make. Instead, we continued experimenting and talking, feeling the excitement and exaltation of stepping into a new area of creation without a route, and spending wonderful times as designers. We completed two types of jeans. They easily surpassed the creation I had initially imagined on my own, becoming products that could only have been achieved by the two of us.
Amidst ISSEY MIYAKE’s storied creative history through now, I feel truly honored to have been able to create a new “piece of cloth” together with the A-POC team led by Yoshiyuki Miyamae. I am grateful to all those involved in the project and pleased to be able to present it here. I hope that as many people as possible will be able to hold the products in their hands and look at and experience them.
Yuma Kano
Born in Japan in 1988. Graduated from Tokyo Zokei University, Department of Design, majoring in interior architecture. After working as an assistant to artist Yasuhiro Suzuki, he established his design office, STUDIO YUMAKANO, in 2012.Based in Tokyo, from a single screw to product design, interior planning, brand direction and material research, he combines an experimental approach with a prototyping-oriented process to design a wide range of things.In recent years, he has been actively exhibiting in Milan, Paris and other cities in Japan. Received major awards including; Good Design Award, M&O Rising Talents Award, German Design Award.