The Yonetomi Seni head office and factory are located in Yamanobe, a small town in Yamagata prefecture with a population of around 15,000. When you look out one of our windows, there is not a single high-rise building in sight, and all you see are fields, railroad tracks and low-rise houses, with an unbroken mountain ridgeline in the background. The only things that fill the sky here are seasonal accents, and silence. Everything that we have built and perpetuated at Yonetomi Seni since our company’s founding in 1952 – our techniques, our creations, and our steadfast passion for making knitwear – has been achieved here, in this local setting. 2022 marks our company’s 70th year, and this is the timing we have selected to open the Yonetomi Store, a new concept store which explores the possibilities of selling fashion directly to local consumers, inside our own factory. Here, we will be both the producer and the retailer, something our customers have always experienced as different entities in the past, and we can meet and interact directly with our customers, allowing us to build a new type of relationship. This store mainly features our in-house COOHEM, This Is a Sweater and Yonetomi brands, but we will also introduce our customers to the joy of fashion with other selected brands as well.

At the Yonetomi Store, our concept of fashion is not limited to clothing, but also encompasses personal encounters, a reconsideration of the relationship between the fashion user and fashion producer, and lifestyle and culture as a whole. Many meetings and interactions will take place here – and we are excited to see what this inspires next. Customers who visit our store will no doubt enjoy seeing our staff and artisans engaged in their work, as well as the sight of our factory in its local environment. The Yonetomi Store is a place where you can experience the history, the story and the potential of Yonetomi Seni for yourself, and this is something we look forward to sharing with many visitors in the future.