Label Susumu Ai celebrates its Japanese heritage with traditional fabrics and clothing designed to last. The label also cleverly combines customer visits with its made-to-order business model.
The love in the name
The name is chosen as personally as the label from Berlin works. Susumu Ai was founded in 2017 by siblings Keiko and Alisa Menkhaus. After many positions at different companies, the sister had just quit her job as a designer and called her brother, upset. He reassured her and suggested that she do something with her love of fashion and found her own label – he would take care of the financial part.
Keiko Menkhaus is now the managing director and Alisa designs the clothes for the label, which now has six employees. “This combination of brother and sister and heart goes well together,” said Alisa Menkhaus before her first runway show at Frankfurt Fashion Week in January.
The name Susumu Ai comes from Japanese and means “continuous love”. The first part of the name Susumu was the grandfather’s name and Ai is the first character of Alisa Menkhaus’s Japanese name, meaning “love”. The label’s logo is the grandfather’s family crest. This personal touch is reflected not only in the way the label maintains its heritage as a family business, but also in the way the clothing is personally made-to-order.
The love in the details
Susumu Ai clothes can be ordered in its own online shop, but the label also visits its customers in their hometowns. So far, the pop-up events have taken place in cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna and Basel and lasted three to seven days. Berlin customers come straight to their own store.
The concept of touring pop-ups isn’t entirely new to fashion. Alexander Brenninkmeijer, a scion of the C&A family, made a name for himself in museums and galleries with the pop-ups from his Clemens en Auguste label. Faex tours the republic with independent fashion labels. In the past, Ingo Müller-Dormann sent punk bands on tour, [https://fashionunited.de/nachrichten/einzelhandel/faex-ein-retail-konzept-das-unabhaengige-modehaendler-und-fashionlabels-zusammenfuehren-will/2020011134200](He has been testing the concept for fashion since 2016.)
Thanks to the pop-ups, Menkhaus can receive the dimensions and wishes of their customers on site; the garments are then made in the Berlin studio. It usually takes up to two weeks to make the garments.
Alisa Menkhaus says Susumu Ai deliberately differentiates itself from mass-produced goods by customizing designs and having an eye for detail. For example, it is important to her that the seams are robust and last a long time. She only uses the French seam, also known as double seam. An elegant seam can be seen from the outside, since the seam allowance of the first seam is hidden with the second seam, which guarantees high-quality workmanship, explains Menkhaus.
And the label has found people who appreciate their work. It started with a friend who introduced her to female lawyers who were looking for something “different”. Customers now include people between the ages of 35 and 70, and younger customers also buy cheaper items via the online shop. Prices range from 19.90 euros for a scrunchie, over 380 euros for a blouse and up to 1350 euros for a coat.
The love of fashion
Alisa Menkhaus’ way into fashion was long and not always easy. After working as an intern at Roberto Cavalli Japan in Tokyo, studying at Esmod in Berlin, working as a stylist and most recently as a designer at Nobi Talai in Berlin, she has seen enough of the fashion industry to know what she wants. Definitely not “producing clothes that end up on sale and get thrown away”.
Presented during Frankfurt Fashion Week, the seasonal collection includes 30 pieces that are easy to mix and match and can be worn both in summer and in winter – in other words, continuously, as the name Susumu Ai suggests. There is now also a bridal fashion collection – with parts that can be combined with everyday wardrobe at any time after the special occasion.
A few items of clothing are made from wool, but the label mainly uses silk. Susumu Ai uses chirimen, the Japanese crepe silk for kimonos popular for its texture. It hardly creases and cools the skin in summer, explains Menkhaus. The label appreciates the high-quality Japanese materials, the manufacture and pattern of which go back to centuries-old traditions. But some trades are under threat and only a handful of people still practice them. Successors are being sought all over the world before the last people with this knowledge die – and the tradition with them.
With their label, Alisa and Keiko Menkhaus wanted to make this heritage accessible and preserve it. In the beginning it wasn’t that easy and it took a whole year to find the right companies. “It’s not easy to find production sites in Japan that trust us with our work,” says Menkhaus. “They also had to believe that we really wanted to preserve Japanese tradition.”
In the future, Susumu Ai plans to host more pop-ups to connect with customers. The wish list includes: Stuttgart, Munich, Salzburg, Zurich, London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and of course Tokyo.