As dusk falls on an unseasonally cold and rainy Saturday, Michiyo Masago is bent over her computer. We meet at her atelier now because she is just returned from Yokohama, and tomorrow she flies to Okinawa -- direct to Ishigakijima, from where she will take a boat to Iriemote.

On this lovely distant island, amid undeveloped semitropical rain forest, she plans to work for five days with weaver Chiaki Maki, creating inventive textiles from which to derive yet another unique range of clothing.

"Together with dyer Akiko Ishigaki, who works on Bali, we began collaborating three years ago," Michiyo explains, carrying an armful of indigo dyed silk and hemp down from the storeroom. A slender dress in a patchwork of gauzy blues. A jacket that floats around a shift of darker hue, and a complementary skirt of magically complex weave. "We call this label Ma-pai, Okinawan for early summer wind.")