A Letter for the Year of the Horse
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We wanted to write you a proper letter. Not a manifesto. Not a trend forecast. Just an honest account of where Renaras stands as we move into 2026 — what we are making, what we have been thinking about, and where the silk is going.
The year of the Horse in the Japanese zodiac carries a particular energy: movement, directness, the refusal to stand still. It felt like a good frame for what has been happening in the atelier.
We have been working with a new group of estates. The pieces arriving now are exceptional — several maru obi from the Meiji period, a collection of fukuro obi in condition we rarely see outside museum holdings, and a series of summer ro weaves in pale silk that we are still working out how to cut without losing what makes them significant. Some of these will become lumbar pillow covers. Others will become wall panels. A few may not become anything at all for some time — they need to be held, considered, understood before they are touched.
We have also been thinking about slowness. About what it means to run a company in which the inventory is, by definition, finite. There will never be more of this silk. The tansu chests are not being refilled. Every estate we work with represents a final generation of objects — things made with care, stored with care, now finding their last placement in homes that understand what they are.