JAPANESE TEXTILES AND MORE
Discover the beauty and tradition of Japanese vintage fabrics with Ngaire. For over 30 years, the beauty of collecting and curating exquisite cotton, hemp, ramie, wool, and silk materials, along with finished items that celebrate the Japanese rich heritage has been integral to who Ngaire is.
Each piece tells a story, blending artistry and craftsmanship. Explore the collection and find the perfect addition to your wardrobe, home or business interior.
Ngaire`s, journey began in Japan in 1986, visiting family friends. This sparked a passion for food, textiles, and artisan products like naturally dyed indigo, sashiko, Boro, cooking Japanese and ingredients, sake, and green tea. Her extensive work experience in restaurants across Japan, Australia, and the UK has honed her culinary expertise and deepened her appreciation for beauty, quality ingredients, materials, design and craftsmanship.
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Having spent 26 years working in the food, drink and textile sectors as a buyer, sourcing manager and material and product development. However, the main focus has been to be aware and know about the origin; from the raw materials and ingredients, the manufacturer or artisan, whilst also mapping the full traceability and transparency and even the next life (before circularity becoming a trendy word). This stems from working at the age of 14 - 19 yrs with food, drink, clothing and shoe manufacturers which led to a specific interest and working knowledge of the demeter, organic, natural, artisan, and handcrafted products.​​​​​​​​​
All materials - whether for the food, textile or drink sectors were from origin: manufacturers in Japan, Thailand, India, Italy, the UK, and Korea. During 2002 - 2014, my work took me back to visiting Japan numerous times where I was sourcing specific items for the restaurant (HORECA) sector. Cookware, chef knives, sake, Japanese tea and specific ingredients led me to also run sake and green tea pairings, train staff at leading department stores, participate as a judge at the International Wine Challenge, import sake and green teas and advise chefs and Michelin-star restaurants on Japanese ingredients and cookware.
The admiration of textile, drink and food creators continues. Sourcing local producers here in Belgium or curating a distinctive collection of vintage Japanese kimono fabric and kimonos, further shares and celebrates the beauty and artistry of local, regional and national identity and cultures.
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The Het Woolly Collectief now stocks an array of silk, hemp, ramie, wool and cotton kimono fabrics and select silk vintage kimono`s and other accessories. In addition stocking Toridori Japanese teas instore.
