John Mahoney is an American artist and designer, who fell in love with Japanese textiles when he visited Japan for the first time in 1993.
it wasn’t until 2016, when he wanted to make a kimono-style coat out of a US Army blanket from WW2, that he taught himself how to sew, later learning to make his own patterns. This began a journey of making garments and accessories using vintage Japanese fabrics, shapes, and ideas. Every piece is one of a kind, each produced from up-cycled or dead stock materials in his studio in upstate New York.
He calls it Nippon West.
J19 - $2,000
John’s Notes:
Japanese kimono fabrics are woven on narrow looms, and patterns with repeats were never designed to match at the seams. The standard formula for kimono construction, however, involves highly visible seams, and so a large pattern such as this one creates random junctions when the fabric panels meet. Further adding to the dynamism of this pattern are off-kilter diamond motifs that serve to reinforce an edgy, wobbly element.
The polished, shiny silk fibers of the exterior are a total contrast with the cozy silk crepe weave on the lining. The lining fabric features a traditional Japanese dot pattern that imitates sharkskin. Because of the exacting intricacy of the stencil used to make this pattern, it is one of the most highly valued fabric patterns.
Both of the silks come from vintage kimonos that I sourced, deconstructed, washed and rehabilitated.
The dress form has a size 40 chest, and the sizing is equivalent to a medium-large.
J20 - $2,400
John’s Notes:
The vintage silk used for the shell of this jacket has a lyrical quality that is difficult to achieve in a woven fabrics. Most Japanese tsumugi kimonos have strong horizontal and vertical motifs, because they’re easier to weave. This pattern depicting garden fencing and flowers, however, becomes a medley of overlapping diagonals rendered in traditional Japanese isometric perspective. The combination of smokey grays and browns with soft pastels represents a particularly Japanese color palette. The silk fibers are rough spun with tiny slubs, and the fabric has a has a nice stiffness that made it a pleasure to work with. I made the lining using a lightweight silk fabric from a man’s vintage nagajuban (under kimono) that I deconstructed.
j23 - $2,600
John’s Notes:
I like this heavyweight woven silk for the diagonal elements that emerge from a strictly horizontal and vertical design. Producing this very rational pattern in a moody violet and aubergine palette, however, feels very Japanese to me. The variegated colors in the warp yarns and the slubs in the weft give the design a natural, organic feel that softens the geometry of the weave pattern.
The lining comes from another vintage kimono that I disassembled, and has a wonderfully shiny luminescence. This woven damask silk also has a very smart, modern geometric design that telegraphs an edgy confidence on the part of the wearer.
The batting is wool; the dress form has a size 40 chest; and the sizing is equivalent to a medium-large. This iteration of my bomber jacket pattern has some gathering at the hips, and minimal quilting on the interior.
J24 - $2,800
John’s Notes:
For the exterior of this jacket, I repurposed silk from a rare tomesode kimono featuring vignettes from The Tale of Genji, Japan's most famous book, and one of the world's first novels. The author is depicted wearing voluminous, layered kimonos in the style of a Heian-era noblewoman. The caligraphy script quoting famous passages is stenciled with dye and not written with an ink brush. These pictorial motifs originally adorned the bottom hem of the kimono, but I was able to reposition them around the torso. And I placed the signature of the artist responsible for this masterful piece of Japanese textile art on an interior pocket. The lining is comprised of stenciled komon silks from two different kimonos I deconstructed. One combines a geometric pattern with tiny flowers, and the other combines stripes with children's toys.
J25 - $2,200
John’s Notes:
I made this jacket from a vintage tomesode kimono that I disassembled. A very formal, special occasion kimono, tomesode feature five family crests and a non-repeating design that cascades from the hips to the ground. This one also incorporates gold thread embroidery.
The lavish scenes of an imperial cart in an autumn landscape now appear on the torso of this bomber jacket, and I was able to repurpose three of the family crests: two on the sleeves and one on the back collar. The back of the jacket shows almost the entirety of the fabric width and how the design motifs overlapped when painted and dyed to allow for a perfect join when seaming.
The stenciled silk crepe on the lining comes from another vintage kimono I took apart. I quilted it with all natural wool batting and silk habotai backing. The neckline to the back hem measures 22"; the neckline to the sleeve hem measures 31"; and armpit to armpit measures 26."
J26 - $2,900
John’s Notes:
I repurposed the silk crepe for this bomber jacket from two vintage kimonos. The fabric for the outer layer is stenciled with a complex pattern including fans, butterflies, carts, wisteria, chrysanthemums, and hand-dyed cherry blossoms. And I made the quilted, inner lining from a formal visiting kimono depicting white peacocks, latticework, pines, and more cherry blossoms. The lining also features family crests of the patron who commissioned this elaborate kimono.
I used unbleached, wool batting for the quilting and the edge tape is wool. The back measures 22" from neckline to bottom hem and 26" armpit to armpit. The arm measure 30" from neckline to hem.
J28 - $2,100
J29 - $2,400
J30 - $3,400
John’s Notes:
The fabric for the shell of this jacket comes from a vintage tsumugi kimono that I was able to acquire in 2024. The huge palette of thread colors and the delicate shading achieved during the weaving process make it quite exceptional. Not surprisingly, it came with bolt ends indicating the workshop that created it. The sweeping diagonals, extensive use of negative space, and clever asymmetry embody some of my favorite qualities of Japanese art. And I spent a lot of time planning how best to map the diverse motifs from a columnar kimono silhouette onto a shaped jacket with large, engineered sleeves. The lining is a silk crepe stenciled with a traditional sharkskin pattern that comes from a vintage kimono I deconstructed.
