This dress is made of a fabric called 56dt twill Khadi. The overwhelming appeal of this fabric is its softness and lightness, which comes from its hand-spun and hand-woven nature.
I wanted to make a one-piece dress that makes the most of these qualities.

Since it is a one-piece, not a haori, I first unfolded the fabric and cut out a hole just round enough for my head to fit through, then I put my head in the hole and literally put scissors into the hole while wearing it.
I can never show you the funny way I made it, but I made it while looking in the mirror and wearing the fabric.

When I am wearing this hand-spun fabric, I often feel that it is a waste to cut it.
I want to wrap myself in it..." I want to make a shape with a minimum of scissors. Until I came face to face with the material in this way, I had been following the royal process of development by drawing pictures on paper and having a pattern made. I feel as if I have developed a close relationship with the material. When I made this dress, I thought, "I want to reproduce the feeling of being wrapped in this soft, light, and enveloping material of 56dt twill. I wanted to give form to my respect for the fabric. That is the concept of this item.

Soft high neck

High necks appear in many of ERIKO YAMAGUCHI's models.
In my opinion, I feel that styles with a wide open chest are very Western, and in Japan, as shown by the kimono, I like things that follow the neck line perfectly and do not open the neck too much, as it gives a sense of modesty, shame, and maturity.
With this in mind, I use high necklines a lot, but if you make a mistake in the way you make a high neckline, it can make your face look very large or tight.

While making high necklines, I have always thought that a high neckline that has enough room between the neck and the face line is the most suitable for Japanese faces and heights.
And the best balance regarding the height and roominess of a high neckline is determined by the fabric.
If the fabric is taut and will stand up to the pin, it is better to have it rather low and a little lower on the neck for better balance, and if the fabric is soft like 56dt, I think it is better to have enough volume to cover the entire neck to make the entire face look smaller and to settle the balance.

Based on such styling ideas, we decided to combine a soft high-neck with a voluminous bodice for this dress.

The power of the collar is truly amazing, as depending on what you wear, it can look as if your face has changed size...! I am reminded of this every time.

Crumpled sleeves for a delicate look

A little above the wrist, there is a point where the gathers become a narrowing.

I wanted to add a bit of femininity to the dress, and since the sleeves of this dress are designed to be longer than normal, I added these to meet the need for functional sleeves when you want to roll up your arms to work.
The gathers are made with elastic, but I also took into consideration the degree of elasticity. I don't want the elastic to be so tight that it leaves marks, but I also don't want it to fall down when I roll up my arms, which is frustrating. So I chose the right thickness and degree of elastic.

Don't you think the presence or absence of this gathered part makes a big difference in the impression?
I feel that the presence of this makes the impression that the sleeves are voluminous, and that they also give a sense of slenderness by being tightened at the wrists.
For women, it is a one-size-fits-all dress that gives a sense of slenderness, coupled with the oversized body as a whole.

Asymmetrical torso

There is a point I really want to make. The front, back, left and right sides of the body are actually asymmetrical.
Originally, it would be better to have the same silhouette for production efficiency, but the right side has a triangular gusset and the left side has a wavy curved gusset, and the shape of the body is also slightly different on the left and right sides.

It is difficult to convey in words, but if you can understand that the body is not a simple silhouette but has a little rhythm and dynamism when you wear it, it is because of the pattern!
To deliberately create this kind of discomfort through sewing and fabric is a very interesting part of making clothes. Textbook-wise, there is no need for such things, and also inefficiency. Still, I think it is something like a hidden flavor in cooking, and I try to put my soul into the part of the garment that people can feel in an instant, like a margin of error.