Pieces of a Kyoto Garden

The crowds of central Kyoto seem like a distant memory in the quiet western suburb where Clémentine's atelier is located. Your experience begins with a quiet stroll to a nearby temple that won't appear in most guidebooks but offers views of bamboo groves and soft green moss spreading across the ground and over carefully placed rocks in a Zen garden. As Clémentine explains the significance of various elements of the garden, sit silently in the main building and enjoy the view, as visiting dignitaries have done for centuries before. The peaceful garden sets the stage for what follows back at the atelier: selecting the patterns you will use from vintage Nishijin silk obi that Clémentine will help you transform into a unique accessory. These are hand-selected pieces representing scenes of what you have just seen in real life — patterns featuring seasonal flowers, garden scenery, and traditional architecture — which will be made into a complete accessory and delivered to your home.

This rare experience combines a visit to a Japanese garden that feels almost like it was opened just for you — with a garden-themed workshop that feels like you are taking the garden home with you. As a designer and Kyoto guide, Clémentine has the experience to make these two halves connect. She creates a connection for you between the real life garden of an ancient Kyoto temple and its representation in Nishijin silk — Kyoto's famous brocade tradition — which you can take home as an accessory. For those who have seen incredible silk brocade obi and wondered how they could admire their beauty in everyday life, these handcrafted bags bridge traditional Japanese craft and modern life. Rather than purchasing ready-made items from a boutique, you'll have the opportunity to select the exact fabric, pattern, and placement for your finished bag, which will be cut and stitched by professional artisans for you.

Clémentine has a background in fashion design and has become an expert in Japanese traditional textiles — obis, kimonos, and Nishijin silk — while living in Japan for over a decade. She has a studio in a traditional Japanese house — wooden floors, sliding doors, and the quiet of a western suburb of Kyoto — where the pace of the day is ideal for the making, the looking, and the conversation to all happen properly. Her inspirations — beyond the fabrics — are the Nishiyama hills that surround her studio: the moss gardens of nearby temples, the bamboo groves, the cherry blossoms along the Katsura River.

Comfortable shoes for the temple walk. You may be asked to remove them at the entrance to the temple hall and at the workshop — so please wear socks.