The State of <Raku>

楽

Raku
In enjoyment and feeling relaxed.

We met Yabai Yabai’s founder, Stacy Tan, late in 2020 through a mutual friend. She had returned back to Singapore half a year prior, after spending 7 years of studying at Japan’s prestigious Bunka Fashion College, and then working at a textile design design company. Having travelled to Japan a few times before the pandemic, it was an easy starting point for conversation and we realised we had a mutual appreciation and desire to explore technique and craft in our respective disciplines.

Cube in 楽.

While exploring ideas for our print, we realised that our idea of Japan differed as a resident and as a tourist, but that gave context to the motifs that we could start on. Tapping onto Stacy’s graphic expressions and our fond impressions, 楽 became that fruit of striking a balance between exploring the memories and reminiscing about past travels, along with the hope that we can do so in the near future.

楽 in the unisex shirt, Tesseract.

楽 is an explosion of kaleidoscope colors and beautifully illustrated wonderful motifs many will be familiar with and associate with Japan. Pick out motifs like the sakura flower, ramen, kaiyaki, and the not so elusive Kaiju in this multi-colored, vibrant print.

Juxtaposed onto classic Shirt Number White pieces, we hope wearing our print will give you that little piece of relaxation, fun, and enjoyment wherever you wear it to.