Why we chose them
Minami is a Japanese fabric house based in Osaka, specialising in knitted "cut-and-sew" cloth — the jerseys and plain knits that become T-shirts, sweats and soft tops. Founded in 1930 by Kumasaburo Minami and family-led ever since, it began by selling greige (undyed) fabric, then took on dyeing and printing, growing into a house that plans, makes and sells its own original textiles. It is a small operation — around twenty people — but a serious one, exhibiting each year at Première Vision in Paris.
What sets Minami apart is where its fabric begins: not with cloth off the shelf but with the yarn itself. The company develops its own original yarns, carefully selects the machines that knit them, and works out its own dyeing and finishing methods — an unusually deep, end-to-end approach for a house its size. It is deliberately partial to natural fibres, and almost everything it makes is Japan-made.
That control lets Minami do what most fabric suppliers can't: cloth full of freshness and imagination, fabric built to be appreciated for years, and faithful reproductions of old textiles. As Japanese textile production shrinks, Minami treats it as a mission to keep making — and keep alive — fabric loved in Japan and around the world.
