It’s no surprise that the Hender Scheme products stand out amongst our other handmade items. This may be in part due to the fact that the brand is a guest curation by HAVEN co-founder Daniel Chmielewski, but also due to Hender Scheme’s uncommon use of leather in the homewares industry. While the majority of our artisans work with materials such as ceramic, metal and wood, Hender Scheme has honed their skills in a very specific material – natural veg-tan leather. This type of hide is known for it’s smooth, dense surface and lack of color from chromium pigments or other harmful dyes. The result is a pale beige tone that intensifies into a rich caramel color the more it is used. These remarkable effects created from the aging process is often compared to metal alloys that patina through oxidization – metals like brass that turn dark brown or tin that eventually become black. Appreciating the beauty of this sort of dynamic change in a material over the course of its lifetime is a Japanese design concept called Wabi Sabi, and the reason why we’ve always felt Hender Scheme products fit well within our roster.
A few years ago, we became fixated with veg-tan leather as a raw material and eventually began working closely with company founder and designer Ryo Kashiwazaki. We’ve always felt his design aesthetic, and mastery with leather was perfectly suited in the realm of home product design. Through multiple visits to their Asakusa headquarters, we have seen the evolution of the company from its inception as a footwear-focused brand to their pioneering exploration into a wide-range of categories including furniture and home goods.
Since it was Daniel that first introduced us to Hender Scheme back in 2012, it is only fair to commend him and the HAVEN team on their incredible discovery and coverage of the brand’s development in the apparel industry. An informative feature can be found here, but if you’re looking for a recent in-depth interview, our favorite can be found in intelligence Magazine issue 02. In this Backstory, we took a different approach. Over the years we have come to know Ryo on a personal level and have enjoyed his company as a friend as much as we have appreciated the opportunity to work with him as a business partner. Read on as we take a few minutes with Ryo for a round of twenty quick Q&A’s that give a glimpse into the personal interests of this designer that we are glad to continuously grow with as the years go by.
The interview was conducted in English and Japanese. Both languages are published so as to not lose any meaning in translation for native readers.
RK: Tokyo. It’s the city I like most in the world.
RK: I’m not a morning person.
RK: I act more intuitively.
RK: Doing things at my own pace.
RK: I haven’t changed much since I was young.
RK: Nature.
RK: Cooked white rice.
RK: I can’t cook at all!
RK: Continue doing what I’m doing. That’s the only one item on my list. Whenever I achieve it, I’ll be extremely satisfied.
RK: “The Angel’s Scene” by Kenji Ozawa.
RK: It’s “Toe”
RK: E.T.
RK: Kenji Otsuki’s “Gummy Chocolate Pineapple”.
RK: Earthquakes.
RK: Shoes I designed myself.
RK: I wasn’t especially aware that I wanted be a designer. Even now, I do a lot of things besides design, and don’t consider that part of me as anything special.
RK: Woodworking.
RK: I received some extreme advice from my junior high soccer coach: “don’t listen to what other people say”. I interpreted that to mean that anything I do, I judge myself by my own standards. As a result, I’ve become more authentic.
RK: Without having a sponsor or working for a design house I’ve gotten as far as I have at this point, though I still have a long way to go.
RK: I don’t think about hypotheticals even a year down the road, but I do have the feeling that my general ideas about life are changing.
“I judge myself by my own standard“.
-Ryo Kashiwazaki
RK: 個人的には東京が世界で一番好きな街です。
RK: 朝は強くないです。
RK: 感覚的に動きます。
RK: マイペース
RK: 若い頃から今もあまり変わっていません
RK: 自然
RK: ご飯です。
RK: 料理は全くできません。
RK: 今やっていることを継続してやっていくこと。が実現できれば一つで大満足です。
RK: 小沢健二の『天使たちのシーン』です。
RK: toeです。
RK: 映画『E.T』
RK:大槻ケンヂの『グミ・チョコレート・パイン』
RK: 地震
RK: 海があって山があって、自然が豊か。水がきれい。自分でデザインした靴を必ず履いて旅します。
RK: 特に強く意識はしていませんでした。今もデザイン以外のこともたくさんやっていますし、デザイナーが特別だという意識がないので欲に固執したことはありません。
RK: 木工にすごく興味があります。
RK: 他人の言うことは聞くなという少し極端なアドバイスを中学生のときのサッカーのコーチに受けました。何事も自分で判断すべきだということだと解釈しています。結果自分の思考がぶれることが無くなりました。
RK: スポンサーやメゾン等にいた実績がない状態で、今に至れたこと。まだまだ未熟ですが。
RK: 1年後すら想像つきません。でも、生活の概念が今とは少し変わっているような気がします。