Historically, banana fibre from northern Okinawa was given as tribute to the Ryukyu royal family and the Edo shogunate. Though today, only a few weavers still produce banana-fibre fabric (bashofu) for what are now very expensive summer kimono and highly prized obi sashes. NUNO's basho textile, however, utilises parts of the banana tree discarded by the kimono industry. Through a process developed by the food industry to make konnyaku glutinous yam cakes first dissolving the starchy tubers with alkali into a gelatinous substance, then heating to solidify banana stalks are reduced to a gel, which is then used to coat cotton threads.
A complex single-layer weave further highlights this basho-cotton in the fabric. The surface design was inspired by fabrics of the African Bakuba tribe.
The fabric is made in a variety of patterns using coloured threads in different weave structures. The finished fabric is rather firm in texture not unlike linen but with a feel and appearance uniquely its own.

NUNO's bashofu banana fibre cloth recycles otherwise wasted fibres pulped from damaged leaves and stems, and utilises them to coat cotton threads to produce a fabric with all the look of bashofu plus greater durability. We at NUNO use this new-old material in combination with a wide range of surface motifs and treatments.This time it's not the usual structural patterning of a computer-controlled dobby weave, but a more graphic approach in a Jacquard double-weave.

Composition: Cotton 100%
Loom: Jacquard
Width: 115 cm
Repeat: 30