■This time, Toki Tomoko, a knitting artist and establisher of Mokely a Japanese knitting brand, is interviewed with. First, how come you began the knitting?

Toki Tomoko: When I was younger, I belonged to a company and worked as a graphic designer. In the private time, I knitted by chance. Then, I was utterly absorbed in and kept knitting. Meanwhile, my pal who belonged to an apparel company asked me to sell some of my knitted at a shop of the company my friend belonged to.


■You had often knitted until the time, too?

T: No, no. I had not knitted for over 10 years. I worked as an office worker at the time and was taking my independence as a free-lance graphic designer into consideration, so I tried to improve my knitting more after quitting the company.

■Oh, the time had come. How was Mokely established?

T: I had never been in the field and been lost at the first time, of course. And I entered an apparel exhibition by accident. For displaying, I needed to fix the brand name and the concept. Then, Mokely was born in Jun. 2002. It was just 10 years ago.


■What was the source of the name Mokely?

T: I thought I had no titling sense and some words I reckoned of were used by somebody already. A coinage had to be used. Some coined words of punning on my name were put up and Mokely was selected among them.