Nomura Tailor Shijo Store — Local services in Kyoto

A dream if you sew. Although it's in an incredibly busy shopping area that is also quite touristy, the shop is calm and cool despite being stuffed to the ceiling with fabric.

Friendly staff, interesting purchasing system where you get the staff attention, show them the fabric you want, they pull out the rolls and take it to the counter to be cut. It's a small store packed to the rafters. High quality printed cotton, Kokka, Echino, Sevenberry, lots of other brands I never heard of, majority Made in Japan and good quality. Five types of double gauze. Prints, prints, prints, lots of traditional and kawaii, lots of cool modern Marimekko-like designs. Also Liberty Japan exclusive prints on second floor, but if I get a quality cotton for a fifth of the price, I ain't buying Liberty... (and I love Liberty, it was too expensive for me).

I believe they have sewing accessories and yarn too, but i did not get that far.

Pretty overwhelming because there is so. much. fabric.

Good prices despite being in a touristy area. Very easy tax free purchasing.

Staff speak English (there are many non Japanese customers). One of my Kyoto shopping highlights although I didn't like the area... too busy, too frantic, loads of fast fashion chain stores,...

This larger Nomura tailor shop is great for tourists and it has an extensive range of fabrics by the metre, with a large range of cotton prints and many other cotton and linen fabrics. There is a section of wool fabrics too. The shop also sells zips, buttons, thread etc. I actually bought a large piece of Harris Tweed wool, tax free, as it was a little cheaper than buying it online from Scotland - I don't wear a lot of bright prints. The staff here are very kind and helpful. I usually find fabric shops a bit overwhelming but I loved this one. There is a smaller Nomura shop inside the covered mall but this main one in the four level building on the main street is the better...

Beautiful selection of quality fabric! Everything is well organized and there's a huge variety of fabric for garment making, as well as all the notions you need to complete your projects. I didn't set aside enough time to shop when I came, but it looks like they ship internationally (I'm in Vietnam). The language barrier here and lack of organization on street stands makes it incredibly difficult to find stuff that fits my taste and just basic notions. Keep in mind when you check out, must check out notions/haberdashery on that floor, and fabric on its floor. I thought that was odd, but maybe the different floors have the related inventories for...