The membership: here's what's inside
It's decided. On September 1, Fukuwohoru opens recruitment for members.
On August 12 I wrote that I wanted the contents settled by the 20th. They're settled, so here is what goes inside. The inventory is also visible on the members page.
The members page. The contents are now visible.
The Library
DXF pattern data taken from disassembly, and photographs. Many times more than ever made it into print goes in here.
DXF data and disassembly photographs
What I've published in books and articles is only part of what the digging turned up. The original CAD data, the photographs that didn't make the cut. Everything trimmed away in editing goes out here as it is. DXF data as downloads; photographs viewable on the site.
MEMO:
A DXF is a pattern blueprint that opens in CAD software — the format used on sewing and pattern-making floors.
The Laboratory
A testing ground where AI measures the DXF data and compares the numbers. Experiment 001 measures eight garments from the 501 family — yoke tilt, seat depth and more, taken straight from the data and lined up by era.
The Screening Room
The disassembly process — and beyond it, the things I think about day to day, and the things that are hard to say in public. That's what this room is for. The slides from the recent 501 lecture are also here.
The Board
Things you've noticed, requests, corrections. A place for direct exchange with members. My replies go here too.
Fees and generations
Two plans. "Viewing" at ¥880 a month, and "Viewing + DXF" — downloads included — at ¥1,650 a month (both tax included). Recruitment runs September 1–30. That month is "Generation 1."
Recruitment is divided into generations.
I don't want the people who backed this first to end up feeling short-changed — but I don't want to hold anything back either. The answer I landed on is a moving fee.
So the next generation will pay more, but if you join in Gen 1, your price stays where it is for good.
Take what you want with you; leave whenever you want. No hard feelings. And you can rejoin whenever you like.
But the moment you leave, your locked-in joining fee is gone. If you come back, it's at the fee of that day.
I want this to be a place where the people who stay and keep the company are the ones most rewarded.
(If a cancellation wasn't intended — an expired card, for instance — contact us via Contact and we'll restore your seat with the locked-in fee intact.)
Note: this section originally read "once you leave, you cannot rejoin" — we've since relaxed the rule. The principle that the people who stay are the most rewarded is unchanged.
Why start a membership now?
One answer.
"To do more interesting things."
That's the polished way to put it, and it is the truth.
But from here, let me speak plainly — the truth underneath the truth.
The honest fact is that I passed the limit of what I can do alone some time ago.
Buying more vintage for every round, staging solo exhibitions in Tokyo — for a subcontract pattern maker, there was no way to keep that up comfortably. "Everyone, lend me your strength" is the honest position.
If only I were better at business...
It turned out exactly as that person warned me back then...
The regrets pile high. But I don't regret the path.
I've run this far, flat out, doing it the way I wanted to do it. So no regrets.
I simply learned that my way, on its own, wasn't enough.
...which is a bit of sour grapes, I admit. Ha.
So I want to be a little more flexible, and try different things.
I'll take the advice I've been given over the years, and do it my way.
Doing it my way probably raises the odds it doesn't run smoothly again.
"You fail because you don't follow the advice as given" — the thing successful people always say.
What "my way" means: put everything out. Hold nothing back.
To everyone willing to back this, I don't want to do "that's all for this month." I don't want to sell information — this much free, the rest paid.
So first, I do it my way. If that fails, I'll think again.
That clumsy way is the only way I have.
Why a membership, not pattern sales
I did consider selling patterns as data, one by one. I even went as far as pricing them. People buy only the patterns they want — clearer, and probably the correct call as a business.
In fact, once, for about a month, I tried selling pattern data on the web.
I felt it immediately: "this would make money if I kept going," "with a growing archive, this becomes a solid business." But at the same time I felt intensely uncomfortable, and I pulled it down almost at once.
There are several reasons, but the biggest was this:
lining up forms that the craftsmen of that era created, as my own "products," felt like consuming history — and I couldn't shake the feeling that it was simply wrong.
On top of that, I hadn't sewn a finished garment from every one of those patterns.
Defects surfacing the moment you actually sew is not rare at all — so was it right to sell them in that state? That question was going to follow me around.
"So membership makes it okay? The result is the same."
I'm sure some will say that.
But this is a matter of how it sits with me — if you understand the feeling, I'm glad to have you here.
And one more important thing. As written above, the price will rise step by step with each generation. Because "I hate the idea of the people who backed this first feeling like they lost out."
Everything goes out from day one, so relative to the volume at the start, the pace of growth will feel slow. Even so, everything that gets added, gets added to the place where the early members already are.
This whole approach may look like it's aimed at pattern makers. Given what I can offer, that side is inevitably strong. But it's not only for pattern makers — if you simply think "Fukuwohoru is interesting," I'd love to have you.
Lastly
The research continues because someone is watching.
And if this place lasts — back to the answer at the top — we get to do more interesting things.
Recruitment opens September 1. The signal will be posted here (Notice).
If you registered on the members page notification form, you'll also get an email.
Thank you.
