I am really pleased to have been invited by Hickoree’s to mount a exhibition in their store here in Brooklyn: I’ve had a wonderful working relationship with them for some time now, and they’re some of the most gracious people you can meet, so I accepted their invitation without any hesitation.

The show is opening tonight, 23 August from 7 – 9 PM, so please come if you can.  I’ll be giving an informal talk on Japanese folk textiles, and this exhibition will be running for one week–and there are a lot of textiles on view to purchase.  After this show closes, Hickoree’s will keep a lot of the textiles on view and accessible.

There’s a beautiful, indigo dyed cotton noren that welcomes you at the top of the stairs leading to the exhibition.

The owners of Hickoree’s, Emil and Sandy, asked their talented sister Liza to customize a blackboard for the event, above.

And here are some views onto the show.  Above you’ll see a 19th century fireman’s coat from Yamagata city: it’s layers of cotton that are sashiko stitched together.

Above you see another view onto the show: the jacket on the left is a sashiko stitched work coat from Yamagata prefecture.  Behind the striped cloth in the center of the photo is a contemporary jacket by Blue Blue Japan, a detail is shown below.

A very wearable sakiori hanten, or rag weave work coat, can be seen above, hanging over a table covered in a large, sashiko stitched furoshiki.

Below is a remarkable noragi that I’ve shown on this blog.  This old Japanese work clothing integrates so well into Hickoree’s, who sells wonderful men’s clothing from small makers, many of them Japanese.

Above is an old komebukuro or rice bag which sits atop a much younger kotatsugake which dates to the mid twentieth century.

The Hickoree’s staff did a wonderful job placing these old Japanese textiles in the midst of the contemporary inventory.

Please try to visit!