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Tokyo, 1649. Increasingly concerned about the lavish styles of the middle classes, the Japanese shogunate issued a set of sumptuary laws regulating the clothing of every strata of the Japanese class system. The chōnin, Japan’s middle classes, were banned from donning the elaborately embroidered kimonos of the samurai warrior classes and in response, adopted a style that comes to be known as iki, roughly translated as “refined spontaneity”. Iki described a form that belied its outwardly simple appearance, one whose craftsmanship and opulent flourishes were known only to the wearer. Hued in a rich emerald green, Akoni’s new Autumn/Winter 2024 models embody the secretive luxury of iki.

Akoni was founded in Switzerland but collaborates with Japanese artisans using techniques from the country’s Arts and Craft heritage – exacting joinery, Kiriko Glass, Shodo and knife-making – to marry Swiss precision to Japanese artistry. Akoni allows the wearer to participate in this nearly 400-year-old tradition of aesthetic pragmatism, disguising the luxury that lies within. In the new short film Made in Japan, the collaboration between these two nations is on display, folded into the collaboration between nature and craft. Scroll to the bottom of this page to watch the film, which showcases how the rhythm of the factory mimics natural processes, and demonstrates how craft can unlock the precise beauty of the organic world.    Matteo Pini

All glasses by AKONI Eyewear.

Photography: Sara Zanoni / Styling: Adriana Pinto de Azevedo