In the News (Japan): Hokkaido’s female farmers toil away in countryside couture
Farm clothes are not known for their sartorial elegance, but a group of Hokkaido women are staging their own catwalk shows with a new line of outdoor farmwear they are calling “Agri-Fashion.”
The women behind “Agri-Fashion,” which sounds similar to “ugly fashion” when pronounced in Japanese, are even touting it as a movement with the potential to attract younger people to careers in farming.
“I always wanted cute working clothes that were more fashionable,” says Kimiko Ikawa, 56, who launched the new line. “I thought by using bright colors and lots of patterns, I could make a new brand of farmwear that hasn’t been made before.”
Ikawa, a fashion school graduate, married a farmer and followed him to the town of Biei, Hokkaido, where the absence of younger residents has become a serious problem.
