A Visit to the Showroom of "neep," an Exhibitor at the October 2023 Show
PLUG IN│Editorial Office
UPLOADED 15 AUGUST, 2024
Two minutes on foot from Nerima Station in Nerima, Tokyo, tucked inside an apartment unit, is an unusual space that's both a fashion showroom and a body-work studio. It's the showroom and body-work/exercise studio "Ichiroan," run by Eiko Takahashi's natural lifestyle brand "neep." It also operates as a gallery, exhibiting and selling other brands that resonate with its worldview and approach. Since last year, the studio has also run courses on the body and mind, teaching a way of life centered on staying balanced in body and mind while wearing clothes that feel good to wear.
What connects fashion and body work is draping. After graduating from a two-year art college, Takahashi enrolled at Bunka Fashion College, where she studied draping under Chie Koike. After graduating in 2000, she launched the brand, and along the way, "came to love draping," which led her interest to expand toward the body, human anatomy, and beautiful movement. She studied figure drawing and the relationship between the body and styling, which eventually led her to body work. "Fashion and body work exist in the same field," says Takahashi. She opened Ichiroan in 2014.
The brand's name, neep, comes from the initials of natural, essence, eco, and project. Its clothes use natural materials, expressing a dialogue with nature through motifs realized with stencil dyeing, gold-leaf finishing, hand-painting, and hand embroidery. Every piece is draped, so it's easy to move in and relaxed, while still fitting comfortably. What she's aiming for is clothing that "makes you feel elegant when you wear it."
The lineup also includes accessories that make the most of the individual beauty of natural stones. Made-to-order pieces, where she listens to what a customer wants or is concerned about and chooses stones that suit them, are also popular.
At the showroom, she also offers styling proposals that take into account a customer's preferences, skin tone, and body shape, along with color consulting and full-body styling. As a way of staying close to each customer, she also offers services such as meridian-based body work and exercise guidance, supporting individual body conditioning and helping balance mind and body.
To help prevent the decline of Japanese culture, she wants to put real effort into clothing-making that helps expand regional traditional weaving. In parallel, within the showroom space, she's also broadening collaborations with creators who value handwork and with brands that resonate with a natural way of living.
As part of that, she recently held a joint exhibition with Okinawa's "YOAKE," a brand that creates original products using Minsa weaving — a traditional craft of Ishigaki Island — and traditional Okinawan woven patterns. Going forward, she'd like to bring food and music into the mix too. "I want to keep enriching what we offer, for people who value taking care of their mind-body balance, and for people who live wrapped in natural materials and natural stones," she says.
