Mica was designed by Reiko Sudo, one of Japan’s most important contemporary textile designers. Educated at Musashino Art University, she and Junichi Arai were the co-founders in 1984 of the Japanese company and store, NUNO, which produces textiles of extraordinary ingenuity and beauty. Sudo and the other designers at NUNO combine tradition and advanced technologies with remarkable creativity, which led them to the forefront of textile design field.
Mica, designed in 1995, represents the remarkable characteristics of polyester when manipulated under certain conditions. In this case, wrapping the yellow semi-transparent and plain-woven polyester into a tight ball and heat-setting the material results in a randomly pleated surface. This combination of handwork and industrial machinery is characteristic of NUNO’s textiles and sets them apart from many designers practicing today.