One might not think of denim and the beach together, but in Kurashiki, Japan, these two go hand in hand. Kurashiki is home to both the neighborhood of Kojima, birthplace of Japanese-made jeans, and the beautiful white sands of Sami Beach. From their 130-year-old folk house in Kojima, Cottle founders Toshiaki and Yukari Watanabe design their clothing with a rich history and culture in mind.
Cottle’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection is inspired by the beach lifestyle. Working with lightweight denim and a special hemp cotton blend, these pieces are sun-bleached and hand-finished with patchwork and a myriad of stitching details.
Toshiaki is known for using traditional materials as a guide and taking them in new directions. Working with a fabric called “itto unsai” that was originally used to make tabi socks, Toshiaki experimented to create a similar hemp cotton fabric that could work for clothing. This old-meets-new fabric has a textured finish with the sturdiness of 100% cotton.
Cottle’s selvedge denim had a similar evolution. Toshiaki worked for three years to recreate an indigo and bengara dyed selvedge that was originally developed by Kichinosuke Tonomura at the Kurashiki Honzome Handwoven Research Institute. Toshiaki and his small team hand-dyed cotton thread with an iron oxide dye called bengara but found the thread was breaking. Through trial and error, they found that wax could increase thread strength, improving the flexibility of the thread without compromising the integrity of the natural dyes.
Every aspect of a Cottle garment is considered, from the mix of metal and kintsugi mother of pearl buttons to a delicate pocket sewn into the interior lining to the embroidery on the collar of a jacket, these designs are a uniform for living. Toshiaki believes “that there is an aesthetic sense of life and a richness in everyday style.”
