Fashion designer Takayuki Abe's brand "Maison Noumu" has its atelier quietly located on a former farm site in Otogaricho, Hokkaido. His bags and wallets made from the leather produced in his atelier are all beautiful.

Takayuki Abe is from Obihiro, and after graduating from Obihiro Sanjo High School, he studied fashion design at Vantan Design Institute, a fashion school in Tokyo. He was selected for the Nagoya Fashion Contest, and the following year, 2010, he won both the Excellence Award and the Special Award at the New Designer Fashion Grand Prix, the world's largest fashion contest with the largest number of entries.

As a result, he won the right to study at NABA Nuova accademia di belle arti, a graduate school of arts and sciences in Milan, Italy. The following year, he graduated at the top of his class from Vantan Design Institute and went to Milan to study.

While in school, he participated in a wide range of activities, including an exhibition of animation works held at the "Centre Pompidou Building" in Paris. His works were also highly acclaimed by world-renowned fashion designers Romeo Gigli and Cinzia Ruggieri, and he held a solo exhibition entitled "dear lovers" in Milan, showing his remarkable performance as a promising newcomer.

Since then, Takayuki Abe has focused on supporting people with disabilities through his artistic activities such as illustration and making clothes, etc. In 2018, he held an exhibition of works he created with people with various disabilities titled "Where Human Beings Are" in Aoyama, Tokyo. Then, on September 11, 2021, he established an atelier in Otogawa-cho and launched his own brand "noumu". The brand name "noumu" means "thick fog (noumu)," and he creates modern, deep, and impressive works using leather materials.

What prompted him to return to Hokkaido from Milan was the onset of major depression. Unable to give up, he returned to Milan, but his condition worsened and he returned home completely 5 months later. He then spent more than five years battling the disease. It was during this period that he encountered the spiritual philosophy of Viktor Frankl, which became one of the triggers for the concept of launching his brand "noumu.

After going through a rather tough battle with illness," he says, "the concept, which had been fantastic, changed to a more philosophical and existentialist approach to making things. Things are replaceable, whereas no one human being is replaceable, right? The irreplaceable individual encountering a single piece of clothing, a leather bag, or a leather wallet in an irreplaceable world at a given moment transformed the concept into a philosophical endeavor that seeks to pursue the value of existence that is considered humanly feasible in life."

Looking around the atelier, we noticed that many of the pieces are made of leather. When asked why, he replied, "I have been using leather since I was a student.

I have been using leather since I was a student, and coincidentally, Italy, where I studied abroad, is famous for its leather production, so I was drawn to the fascination of leather. I love the feeling as if the clothes are breathing. I think it's in accordance with the natural order of things, since our ancestors, the primitive people, wore leather."

Most of the clothes on display are leather. And one size fits all. There is a big reason for that.

I accept made-to-order orders, but each garment I make has a rod number, and I only use precious dead stock fabrics, so I can only make one or two garments. At noumu, we don't want to just make clothes, we want to provide that kind of valuable experience."

Many of noumu's fans are born from this idea, and some people come to the shop to take their time and find the perfect piece for themselves. Many people look forward to talking with him, not only about his fascinating works, but also about episodes from his days in Italy and topics related to design, as he gradually shares a little bit about himself, despite his shyness.

He also does not hide the fact that he has been battling with the disease and wants to help others suffering from the same depression, so he holds activities to overcome the disease through his artwork about once a week at his atelier.

His gentle smile suits him so well that it is hard to believe that he was suffering from the disease.

Currently, in addition to noumu's artwork, the atelier also carries many tools needed for leather maintenance and other miscellaneous goods that he loves.

noumu's atelier makes you feel as if you are somewhere in Italy even though you are in Tokachi, or as if you are visiting a museum even though it is an apparel store. Why not visit noumu for a one-of-a-kind encounter?

Maison noumu

■Address: 59-9, Towa-higashi 2-line, Ondo-cho, Kawagoe-gun, Hokkaido
Business hours: Tuesday and Wednesday 11:00-15:00 / Saturday 12:00-18:00
Other days of the week are available by appointment.

■Instagram：nou .mu