Hosoo, a historic, Kyoto-based specialist in kimono textiles, will show off its latest innovations during Paris Fashion Week. Some change color; others vibrate or scintillate.

The shoes are 100 percent made in Japan, crafted with Japanese silk kimono and genuine Japanese leather. No two pairs are alike, as each shoe features unique patterns cut from different kimono.

A traditional-style kimono is made from long pieces of silk fabric, sewn together by hand, while a complete outfit involves putting on 12 or more separate pieces.

The company has continued to scale, selling 4,500 pairs in 2024, and has upcycled 690 kimonos (around 2,732 square meters of fabric). Tokyo Kimono Shoes also makes leather bags with kimono off-cuts.

Fashion startup Arlnata uses silk kimono fabrics for its ready-to-wear clothing, most of which is Western-style. Based in Japan, the brand presented its first collection in April 2019.

From 17 th -century Japanese kimono maker to supplying the biggest fashion houses and luxury hotels with exquisite textiles today, Hosoo has found a way to retain its traditions while transforming ...

Kimono are known as Japan’s classic fashion item. Now their colorful, nature-themed fabrics are being repurposed in a modern way, in decorative sneakers. We look at these rescued fabric shoes ...

Tokyo-born Keiko Hjersman, 50, coordinator of Japanese studies at UC Berkeley, said she can barely tie the sash on her kimono, and even her 84-year- old mother has stopped wearing one.

It began making shoes using kimono fabric in 2020, when factory owner Noriko Onozaki decided to upcycle her mother’s old kimonos, which had been consigned to clothes chests for decades.