Lifestyle Business
Challenging New Ventures Backed by Long Experience and Know-how
Take a look at Kowa's businesses
Backed by the Company's 110 years or more of experience in fabrics since its foundation and accumulated know-how, this division is in charge of proposing plans, manufacturing and marketing/selling both materials and finished products. We effectively use our monozukuri (Japanese spirit of manufacturing) in the production of textiles in factories in China and other East Asian countries. The finished textile products are sold both in Japan as well as in the U.S. and Europe through our overseas offices. The division also handles retail deals for our original brands such as tenerita, all of which are planned and manufactured in-house. The division will continue to take on new challenges.
Introduction of business activities
- Textiles
- Our textile business focuses on cotton fabrics manufactured utilizing Japanese weaving and processing technologies, specializing in distinguished textiles such as stretch fabrics and high density/high grade fabrics (with high yarn count). We also provide technical assistance and advice to our overseas textile manufacturers and dye works, aiming to create a borderless, global monozukuri community.
- Apparel
- Our integrated OEM system spans from planning and production to distribution for children's/men's/lady's garments, bedclothes, general goods and others in partnership with our affiliate factories at home and abroad. The division also plans, manufactures and markets licensed products.
- Direct marketing activities
- We conduct a retail business that operates stores.
We handle widely ranging fields. For example, tenerita MAISON sells a variety of consumer goods centered on the organic cotton brand "tenerita." INCONTRO sells imported brands and brands based on a licensing agreement.
Also, we conduct integrated business activities from planning and production to sales, so we can consider customers' needs in planning and production, which is our major strength.
Main direct marketing activities
tenerita Maison
An organic lifestyle shop that offers a variety of products for a comfortable life, starting with organic cotton. We provide comprehensive support for creating a more satisfying lifestyle with a wide assortment of items selected for excellent design features and functionality, including "tenerita" brand products.
※tenerita
Kowa's original organic cotton brand – Japan's first organic cotton brand that has met the international standard GOTS. Our organic cotton is made from raw cotton that was cultivated on a farm using no agricultural chemicals or chemical fertilizers for at least three years. The brand name "tenerita" comes from the Latin word "teneritas (which means gentleness), and this is indeed an authentic organic cotton brand produced with consideration not only on comfort in use but also on the global environment.
INCONTRO
Incontro Company, Ltd. sells unique brand-name imported products and licensed products such as Vivienne Westwood, Ann Demeulemeester and Patrizia Pepe in its directly operated stores.
Franche lippée
We sell ladies apparel under the brand name "Franche lippée", a French expression meaning “warm and hearty dishes.” Since its launch in 1999, the brand has been selling highly popular clothing for ladies, especially working women. It produces unparalleled, unique clothing with meticulous attention to detail, which brings attention and pleasure to the wearer with its distinctive personality.
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「TENERITA」 The original organic cotton production system that Kowa holds pride in.
"TENERITA" is a system that delivers safe and secure fashion using internationally certified organic cotton. To realize this, we emphasize "traceability" in the production process and operating with "safety standards."
TENERITA products are safe and secure authentic organic products whose production sites can be found at a glance by consumers. They are also produced at a certified factory (alliance) that agrees on the way of thinking behind TENERITA.
First of all, organic cotton is cotton that was produced on a farm using no agricultural chemicals or chemical fertilizers for at least three years, and that has been certified by an international certification organization.
However, organic cotton accounts for less than 1% of world cotton cultivation volume.
In addition, it is said that a similarly large amount of agricultural chemicals is used for cotton cultivation as it is for coffee bean cultivation. It is true that the majority of cotton cultivation is a huge stress to the global environment as well as human bodies.
Considering the situation, we at Kowa feel that we can do something about it, because we have handled cotton for over a hundred years. That thought is the source of the TENERITA Project.
Presently at TENERITA, we are creating a system to produce safe and secure products using organic cotton grown in an environment that is gentle to the earth, together with manufacturers that support this intention.
As evidence of TENERITA’s activities, we adopt strict international certification standards in Western countries. We are also introducing a system to visualize the entire production history, from the cotton fields to the sewing process, and for people to be able to find who produced the product at a glance.
Such efforts to maintain quality are made not only in production control at a certified factory that has met these strict standards like us, but also in the labor environment of people who work in each part of the production processes, in the safety of chemicals used, and in the selection of materials such as buttons and strings used in the clothing.
We thoroughly pursue these strict standards and control solely for the purpose of realizing harmony and coexistence between nature and people. Also, we aim to deliver to customers the joy of using our products and the wonderful sense of security in our products touching their skin.
We will continue to create gentle things, aiming to fuse fashion and ecology.
To consider the health of people who cultivate cotton, as well as the global environment… and for people throughout the world to have such kindness.
That is the dream of the TENERITA Project.
「FLANDERS LINEN PREMIUM」
The highest-quality natural material
"Flanders Linen®" is our original brand which uses the highest-quality linens harvested in the Flanders region that extends to France, Belgium, and Holland. (Flanders is the name of the historic region that extends to the current Belgium, France, and Holland.)
"Flanders Linen®", which is excellent in absorbing water, dries quickly, and gets softer the more it is washed, is cool in summer and warm in winter. With our products using the highest-quality natural material, freshness and comfort of wearing can be enjoyed throughout the year.
"SINCE 1350" and "three crowns" carved on the logo
Around 1350, when neighboring countries were in chaos due to France's Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), the linen industry significantly shifted to the Flanders region. The region was blessed with the clean stream of Leie River, which extends to France and Belgium. Since then, its traditions and techniques have been passed down to the present and high-quality linens have continued to be cultivated.
Also, the three crowns on the logo mark, which expresses the history and tradition as a motif, are based on the crowns of France, Belgium, and Holland.
