minä perhonen creates all-original garment textiles that are specially dyed, embroidered and woven to recreate designs that were originally hand-drawn.
Sora is Japanese for sky, and check is the Japanese term for checkered or plaid. This explains the name of this pattern, which depicts clouds crossing the sky. The squares were created by painting the stripes individually, giving the colors varying depths of ink and making the squares various sizes for a pleasantly rough look.
The pattern contains a combination of large and small checkers, with the large checkers on an entirely different piece of fabric than those of the small checkers. These fabrics are sewn together in a way that puts the large checkers on the front of the A6 size cover and the small checkers on the front of the A5 size cover. The discord of the conflicting patterns provides a nice accent to the cover’s overall look.
The pen holders and cover interior are made with faux leather in a light aqua blue. The cover contains two dotted lace bookmarks.
The cover is made with 100% linen, and the printed fabric provides the full flavor of minä perhonen’s hand-drawn designs.
minä perhonen is a fashion brand created by designer Akira Minagawa.
First founded in 1995 under the name minä. Opened the first shop in Tokyo in 2000, and renamed the brand name to "minä perhonen" in 2003.
In Finnish, “minä” means “I,” and “perhonen”means “butterfly,” expressing Minagawa’s hopes to create designs as light-hearted and beautiful as the flapping wings of a butterfly.
minä perhonen Website
Interviews with minä perhonen’s Akira Minagawa on Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun:
From a Single Grain of Wheat (Japanese)
The Fish Market and the Sewing Machine (Japanese)
In order to provide you with the most satisfaction for your product, we've compiled a list of warnings, potential issues, and tips to keep in mind for this particular product. Please be sure to read this information carefully before placing your order.
Each item is individually assembled and sewn by hand by a factory worker. Best efforts are made to ensure consistent sizes and specifications, but there may be slight differences.
This material is first printed or dyed and then later sewn onto the cover. While colors are designed to be consistent, there may be uneven coloring or slight shade variances between covers. This may also happen across a single cover, such as a pocket compared to the rest of the cover. In addition, on rare occasions, there may be small black or white dots visible on the print. This is an unavoidable aspect of the manufacturing process.
Due to the nature of this material, threads may contain uneven thickness or naps (knots and lumps in the material).
Due to the characteristics of the print and product material, the sewing process may expose the white of the original material around the stitches.
Due to the naturally-occuring naps (knots and lumps in the material), the print may contain some white spots. This is caused by originally-present naps being printed on, and these naps later coming off the cover. Please understand this is an unavoidable aspect of the all-natural material.
Stitching may be slightly curved or bumpy as a result of sewing together materials of various thicknesses.
This design is printed in several layers to retain the feel of hand-painted artwork, including any smudges or blurs. These are not a mistake during the printing process.
The bookmarks of this cover use original mina perhonen lace straps. If you see any loose threads, we recommend refraining from pulling on it and instead tucking it between other woven threads.
When this cover is open flat, exterior stitching areas may appear puckered and lining material may be loose.
This cover does not contain an outer pocket.
This cover uses thicker materials than usual, so it may not fit. Forcing it into a Cover on Cover may damage the products.
The pen holders are rigid at first, making it difficult to insert pens. You can speed up the breaking-in process by rolling the pen holders in your hand.
The pen holder is designed to perfectly fit the 12.2 mm (0.48”) diameter Jetstream pen offered as a free bonus gift with select Japanese-version Hobonichi Web Shop products. Pens with certain shapes and materials may be difficult to pull through the holder. The holder can fit pens up to 13.5 mm (0.53”) in diameter.
These Hobonichi Techo cover designs were directed by minä perhonen, but produced by Hobonichi. Inquiries about these covers cannot be answered at minä perhonen shop locations, so please contact the Hobonichi Store with any questions or concerns.
Please avoid storing your product in hot, humid places or placing it atop other objects for long periods of time as this may result in lower quality and color stains.