The story behind us

Nex Core Flow Path started in a rented room in Shimokitazawa in the autumn of 2018. Yuki Tanaka had spent four years as a pattern-cutter at a mid-size lingerie manufacturer in Osaka, and left after growing tired of watching beautiful fabric get cut into shapes that fit no one particularly well. The first collection was six pieces, made on a single Juki industrial machine, sold through a small Instagram account to friends and friends of friends. The first run sold out in eleven days. Yuki took that as a signal.

The turning point came in spring 2020, when a fabric buyer at Nishiwaki Textile introduced Yuki to a small mill producing a double-knit stretch cotton with a weight and hand-feel unlike anything available from the usual wholesale suppliers. That fabric became the foundation of the Nude Series, which remains the most requested line in the collection. Around the same time, Yuki hired Hana Mori, a former swimwear designer from a Kyoto resort brand, to lead the swimwear side of the business. The two of them spent that summer cutting and re-cutting bikini patterns on a dress form in Yuki's living room, arguing about cup seam placement until they got it right.