Chie Imai has been described as a designer who started her designing career with materials.
The quality of fur is directly related to the quality of the base skin. The higher the quality of garment you desire, the more important the quality of the base skin.
Royal Chie’s garments utilize select Saga leathers from auctions in Finland and Denmark.
The distinctive characteristics of Chie Imai’s designs are the beautiful colors represented in “Mosaique de Chie” and the surprising lightness of her furs that was born from the concept of “everyday furs.”
The accepted colors of fur clothing when Chie Imai first started designing were black and brown. In addition, designs were exclusively focused on utilizing the feel of the base leather. At the time, “fur” epitomized a status, and there were only heavy fur jackets that put a strain on one’s shoulders. The idea of wearing fur as part of daily fashion was considered absurd.
However, Chie Imai started designing from the viewpoint of women who actually wear fur and with the concept of “lightness and color that is compatible with that of everyday clothing that can be worn anytime.”
Her perspective of beauty, which she acquired from her youth and further developed overseas, generated the bold idea of coloring fur. She had a variety of new and fresh ideas including cutting and sewing fur to make it lighter, removing the liner, using a single piece of leather for a garment and designing reversible fur items. All these emerged from her quest to make “modern fur that can be worn everyday.”
As a designer, Chie Imai was also featured 15 years ago in Paris Vogue, the leading fashion magazine, as a “magician of color” and was highly evaluated in the piece.
The garments of Chie Imai are all hand sewn piece by piece by skilled craftsman at workshops.
In particular, the “Mosaique de Chie” series makes garments with many elaborate processes including special tanning techniques to make the skins lighter, hand-cutting mink skins that have been dyed into various colors into square pieces, matching the colors of each piece and sewing them one by one. All of these techniques require very high skill and it is a time consuming process.
Only farm-raised furs are used in Chie Imai’s garments. Of the fur sold today, 99.9% is commercially raised. Like edible fish and meat, they are farm-raised and hence they do not cause harm to the natural ecological system.
Also, Chie Imai is active in various charities. In 2001, Chie Imai held a charity sale for the victims of 9.11 and a charity show was held at the St. Regis Hotel in New York on October 16, 2003.
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