United Arrows & Yamaei Keori | A Perfect Suit Collaboration

United Arrows commissioned a new fabric from Yamaei Keori, a historic mill located in Tsushima, a city in the Bishu region, which is known as the birthplace of Japan’s woolen textile industry. After countless trials, an exclusive material was perfected, used to create a special suit—one that outlasts trends and is perfect for any occasion. To learn more about its creation, we visited the mill in Aichi Prefecture and spoke with Yamaei Keori’s president, Mr. Yamada.

Photography: Go Tanabe
Interviewer: Shoko Matsumoto

Yamaei Keori: A Century of Leadership in Japanese Wool

The soft water of the Kiso River is said to be ideal for dyeing and finishing yarns and textiles.

Alongside regions in Italy and the United Kingdom, Japan’s Bishu area is known as one of the three great wool-producing centers of the world. Bishu is a wide territory, and the city of Tsushima is situated at the southernmost point of the Kiso River basin, a land rich in water resources. Each town in the region has its own heritage; Tsushima’s is rooted in producing solid-colored fabrics for menswear. It is also the birthplace of Harukichi Kataoka, known as the father of Bishu wool textiles for his pioneering work in the Meiji era.

The factory's gate has remained unchanged since its founding and is slated for renewal as an atelier.

Yamaei Keori was established in Tsushima in 1915 and celebrates its 109th year in business. Around 1950, the company helped pioneer the development of black formalwear fabrics, honing its expertise in yarn selection and advanced textile design. In the 2000s, a new chapter began when high-end European brands started visiting the mill—a first at the time—seeking to create fabrics bearing the selvedge mark signifying their high-quality status.

From that point on, the mill expanded beyond solid wool to work with a diverse range of materials, including silk, linen, and cotton. Around 2010, the company dedicated itself to developing new fabrics for items like jersey jackets, skillfully adapting to modern needs while honoring tradition. They have consistently produced superior, sophisticated textiles.

An Original Fabric for Japan’s Climate, Realized by Yamaei Keori

Today, these slow-speed rapier looms with dual-sided insertion are exceptionally rare.

With technical expertise rooted in tradition and a meticulous approach to craftsmanship, Yamaei Keori was the natural choice when United Arrows sought to develop a unique fabric. The project began with the introduction of our Regular Model suit for the Spring/Summer 2023 season. To create a material worthy of this model, we turned to Yamaei Keori.

Roughly 60,000 meters of yarn are wound onto smaller spools for weaving. The warp yarns are carefully aligned to ensure uniform tension in a process known as warping. A craftsman inspects every single yarn on the loom for imperfections.

United Arrows requested a hopsack-style fabric that would be comfortable and suitable for Japan's modern climate, which features long summers and short, mild winters. Yamaei Keori proposed twisting a thick yarn and a thin yarn together. Hopsack is traditionally a breathable, plain-weave fabric made with high-twist yarns, ideal for summer. However, to make it appropriate for three or even four seasons, we had to focus on both the weight and feel of the material.

The process of twisting the yarns together is detailed and careful, but it allows the fabric to maintain its breathability without becoming too heavy. The result is a fabric with a textured appearance, yet remarkably smooth to the touch—a quality that cannot be achieved with a single yarn type.

Mr. Kazuhiro Yamada, the fourth-generation president of Yamaei Keori.

Creating a Versatile, Unprecedented Fabric from Tradition and Technique

The road to creating this fabric was filled with challenges, from determining the final yarn count to finding the right weight and density for Japan's climate. One of the challenges was ensuring that the fabric would be comfortable year-round, especially considering the country's long, humid summers and very short winters.

The warp and weft are slowly and deliberately woven together, creating a fabric with airy volume and a rich texture.Design specifications from 90 years ago, preserved at the mill. They form the foundation of today's work.

Another challenge was adding stretch to the fabric. While woven textiles, especially those made from wool, have a natural elasticity, controlling that stretch to ensure stability was challenging. We needed to provide the right amount of stretch while preventing the garment from shrinking significantly after cleaning. Striking this balance was a challenge, but the result is a fabric that blends smoothness with structure, elegance with masculine character, and comfort with durability. This fabric not only looks exceptional but also feels wonderful to wear.

An Exclusive Suit for Modern Life

This special three-to-four-season fabric combines the breathable, crisp-to-the-touch character of traditional hopsack with the comfort of modern stretch. The exclusive fabric from Yamaei Keori brings the United Arrows UA Regular Model suit to life, creating a style that is both timeless and social—entirely appropriate for any setting.

The suit for the Spring/Summer 2024 season features a birdseye fabric, woven with Yamaei Keori's signature slow-speed looms. This technique gently and carefully weaves the fabric, achieving a soft, full-bodied texture from the raw material. Like the hopsack version, this special fabric also features natural stretch, made from 100% natural fibers.

"I find joy in speaking with clients, bringing their ideas to life, and refining our process with each new project. The requests we receive from Japan and abroad are always changing, reminding me of the endless possibilities in textile creation," says Mr. Yamada. "We also have young people in their 20s eager to join us and share our fabrics with the world. I want to build an even stronger foundation for them to work confidently, and I believe Yamaei Keori is the place to do it." By adapting to today's needs while nurturing the next generation, Yamaei Keori is proving that the future of Japan's textile industry is filled with possibility.

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Yamaei Keori Co., Ltd.
With a guiding philosophy of inheriting the endless possibilities and wonder of weaving, Yamaei Keori carries on a proud legacy of textile techniques. For over 100 years, it has been a leading force in Japan's wool industry, continuously weaving refined, high-quality fabrics.