Customize Your Own Handmade Jeans at Kurashiki, Okayama
Overview
Personalize a pair of handmade denim jeans at the Betty Smith Jeans Museum & Village in Okayama's Kurashiki City! Choose your preferred pair, then make it your own by attaching buttons, rivets, leather patches, and/or other accessories to it.
Highlights
- A diverse range of jeans available, from kids' sizes to large sizes
- Visit the Kojima district in Kurashiki City, Okayama — a hub for Japan-made denim
- Tour the Betty Smith Jeans Museum & Village, home to Japan's oldest jeans factory
- Pick a pair of jeans that you like, then customize it by attaching your preferred accessories
Important Information
• Basic accessories such as buttons and rivets are covered by the experience fee, but for an additional fee, you can add accessories such as embroidered patches (please inquire and pay on-site)
- As a COVID-19 prevention measure, we will provide gloves for you to wear during this experience; please make sure to wear them
- As you will be using a sewing machine during this experience, please do not wear heeled shoes. We recommend wearing sneakers
Description
The Kojima district in Okayama Prefecture's Kurashiki City is the birthplace of domestic, Japan-made jeans. The area has had a long history of growing cotton, manufacturing textiles, and indigo dyeing, so in the 1960s, some local manufacturers switched to jeans-making, leading to a denim jeans boom in the area.
Betty Smith is one of Kojima's well-known denim brands. It's Japan's first domestic manufacturer of ladies' jeans, and the Betty Smith Jeans Museum & Village is Japan's oldest jeans factory. At this factory's workshop, you can customize a pair of handmade jeans to truly make it your own.
Choose from a variety of stylish jeans that come in a diverse range of sizes. Then, pick some accessories — buttons, rivets, and leather patches — to sew onto your jeans. You'll get to experience some parts of the jeans-making process, such as using a sewing machine and vintage tools! The staff will also assist you, so don't worry if you have no prior sewing or crafting experience.
Finally, when you're done, you can take home your finished jeans — you can even wear them right after the experience! You'll also get a tote bag as a keepsake of your experience.