Sakura
A season, carried.
Red flowers on black. Branches drawn across the canopy the way they fall across a sky.
Sakura is the same object as Kuro and a different one entirely: twenty-four carbon fibre ribs, a canopy that carries a season on it. Closed it is a black shaft. Opened it is a bloom, and everyone sees it.
Technical woven canopy, water-repellent and rated UPF 50+. Individually numbered, with a certificate of authenticity.
One hundred and fifty pieces. Spring does not arrive in small numbers.
Why a hundred and fifty?
Three times as many as Kuro, and still a closed edition. The print is the reason people come, so we made more of it — but a number that runs out is the point of the whole thing. When the hundred and fiftieth leaves the atelier, that is the end of it.
Carbon architecture
Steel bends and stays bent. Aluminium fatigues. Carbon fibre does neither — it flexes under load and returns to where it started, which is what you want from twenty-four ribs in a gust. It is also why the whole object weighs 340 grams.
Woven protection
UPF 50+ is the highest rating a fabric can carry — at least 98% of ultraviolet blocked. Ours is woven, not sprayed on top, so it does not wear off with use. The same shell sheds rain: water beads, runs off, and the canopy dries in minutes. The branch is printed into the weave, not onto it.
