SIWA – Fashion and Tradition in paper form
The Japanese paper goods manufacturer Onao and the famous designer Naoto Fukasawa created together the product line “SIWA” made from soft naoron.
Shopper
color: black
Party-wallet
color: black
Naoto Fukasawa + Onao
The Japanese paper goods manufacturer Onao and the famous industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa created together the product line “SIWA” made from soft naoron. The manufacturing process of these paper products is based on the traditional Japanese craft of hand papermaking method “Washi suki“. This method is also used to produce Washi (Japan paper). By mixing the usual pulp with fibers of recycled PET a brand new material is born: Soft Naoron. Both of it’s features balance each other’s weaknesses out. It feels like a soft kind of paper, but is durable, tearproof and even water-repellant. This is how Fukasawa could reinvent the traditional craft and introduce the SIWA products into the modern everyday life. SIWA means “wrinkeles” in Japanese and as the products age with usage, the surface also gets softer and a bit wrinkly.
Fukusawa was born and raised in the Japanese prefecture of Yamanashi, which happens to be the headquarter of Onao. This is no surprise, since the prefecture is known for their high quality paper products already since the 6th century. The origin of the idea for the first SIWA product (the brown bag) though is not from Japan, but from the US. During the time when Fukusawa was living in the USA, he was inspired by the brown paper bags for sandwiches.
