Cloth that is no longer woven. Garments made to outlast it — cut and sewn one at a time, by one man in Berlin.
Needle and thread join fabric and people — as they always have, as they always will.
産靈 Musuhi
Musuhi — 産靈, the birth spirit — is ARAI’s 2026/27 collection, and the work closest to Osamu now. He drew it from the Zen monk Issan Ichinei, who travelled from China to Japan seven hundred years ago and became a central figure in the exchange between the two cultures.
The garments hold a sense of space — 無 mu, emptiness · 空 ku, void · 寂 jaku, stillness. For Berlin Fashion Week the collection was presented inside a working tea house rather than on a runway — the pieces worn and seen up close, over cups of Japanese tea. Handmade in Berlin from rare Japanese cloth, woven by rural artisans.
Before July the work travels — a Travelling Tea Space carrying the garments and tea to places across Berlin ahead of the July presentation.
presentation · 5 july
at Kissabō, Berlin
- curation & realizationLuzie Kork
- movementYui Kawaguchi
- musicsub-tle.
- hair & make-upNoriko Takayama
Garments, bags and objects — made by hand in Berlin.
A few bodies of work, since 2005. Each piece is cut and sewn one at a time.
Rare Japanese cloth, woven by rural artisans — bought bolt by bolt, to keep a tradition alive. When a bolt ends, it ends.
Every piece is handmade in Berlin, start to finish — Osamu cuts the patterns and sews each garment himself, in pesticide-free cotton, linen and natural cloth. Made to be worn for years, not seasons.
From a silk-farming house in Gunma to a studio in Berlin.
新井 修 — Osamu Arai was born in 1982 in Maebashi, Gunma, 100 km north of Tokyo. Gunma made the silk for kimono, and he grew up in Shirasawa in a house of silkworm farmers — close to cloth from the start.
He learned to cut patterns and make garments — in Japan, in Sydney, and finally in Berlin, where he settled in 2011. His own label, ARAI, has shown in Berlin and Gunma since 2005.
The intention is simple: a long life and a good feeling in everyday wear. Careful cloth, careful colour, comfortable cuts — garments that quietly become part of who they are.
arai · since 2005
- 2005 →Own collection & exhibitions · Berlin & Gunma
- —Made-to-order & private commissions
- 2024Film “ARAI” · Silver Award, Paris Film Awards
- bornMaebashi, Gunma, Japan · 1982
One cloth story a month — the bolt on the cutting table, and the hands that wove it.
Open studio and trunk-show invitations go to the letter first. One email a month, nothing else.
By appointment, in Berlin.
By appointment — contact@arai-studio.com
join the bolt letter