Message from Creative Director

Do you ever wonder why you have to carry around a heavy bag with your computer and documents in it?

I have been searching for a luxurious bag that is light and easy to use, but I found out that many of my friends also had the same problem of not being able to find the right bag for their work.

I wanted to create a bag that I could not find, so I did some research and found out that manufacturing with animal skins was causing environmental and health problems, and that there was a material called man-made leather that was created with Japanese technology.

Although man-made leather is lighter and more durable than genuine leather, and has a comparable texture, it is easily confused with synthetic leather and is more difficult to sew than genuine leather.

Therefore, I started to search for craftsmen, and learned that although Japanese craftsmen have world-class skills, more and more of them are going out of business, and the culture of craftsmanship is in danger of extinction.

I want to combine function and fashion so that working women can take pride in themselves. I want to aim for an "animal-free" product that does not use animal leather. I want to support artisan culture by using traditional Japanese techniques. These thoughts gradually strengthened, and I decided to launch FUMIKODA, a brand that realizes these thoughts. We hope that FUMIKODA will be used by women all over the world as a "new option for working women to take pride in their lifestyle.

PROFILE

A graduate of The New School Parsons School of Design and a web designer for a fashion marketing company in New York, she has created websites for major brands and managed many fashion portal sites.

After returning to Japan, she founded her web design company, Booplan Inc., in 2003. Ms. Koda has been involved in all aspects of corporate web marketing, including website production and design for various industries, promotion planning, and proposals for the use of social media.

Since 2010, Ms. Koda has published several IT-related books, including "No Need for a Notebook: The Art of Organizing Information in the Age of Social Networks" (Kanki Publishing). Her articles are serialized in the Yomiuri Shimbun's "Otemikomachi" and other publications. Her most recent book is "Textbook of IoT Projects for Beginners" (Cross Media Publishing). She also founded BLUE FOR JAPAN, a non-profit organization with volunteers after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. She is a big advocate for giving back to the community by supporting children's orphanages across Japan while serving as a director of the NPO.

In 2016, Ms. Koda established FUMIKODA Co. Ltd. in 2016, and became the creative director of the environmentally friendly and ethical smart bag brand FUMIKODA.