Ethan Kiyoshi Summers
Ethan Kiyoshi Summers is always testing his products. Good workwear, he figures, should be able to survive work.Â
“ Different types of my work get inspired by each other,” he tells the Scene from his former studio. (He recently relocated his design and production space near his home in Kingston Springs.) “The other side of the business is furniture, and I’m on jobsites all the time, so I wear my stuff. It has to be comfortable, functional and high-quality . When someone buys our stuff, I want it to be in their closet for the majority of their life.”
His brand, Oil/Lumber, found a pair of bestselling items that strike that balance. Both — the Haori Coat and Noragi Jacket — combine Japanese kimono design elements, specifically a drawstring tie, with recognizable workwear touches, like ample pockets and earth tones, and echo the popular resurgence of Carhartt and Dickies. Outside of Nashville, Oil/Lumber ships the most apparel to Brooklyn buyers and even counts a few loyal customers in Northern Europe.Â
Kiyoshi Summers started selling as Oil/Lumber in 2014. He quit bartending and went full time in 2017, eventually earning national attention from outlets like GQ and Forbes while preserving the boutique feel of original handmade garments.Â
“I would take stuff I liked, cut it up and sew it back together to learn how to pattern my favorite stuff, like Carhartt and Japanese coats,” he recalls. “About a year in, I started altering stuff I got from Goodwill. I wanted to make it different, patchwork it up, and then I had these old kimonos — I modified things and incorporated what I liked.”Â
Kiyoshi Summers, who is half-Japanese, credits Japanese culture’s focus on quality and technical skill as a continuing design influence. He also sees growing up in Park City, Utah, as key for introducing him to skating, snowboarding and outdoor brands. A pair of Oil/Lumber pants combines durable and flexible rip-stop fabric — a popular choice for outdoor garments — with kimono-like drawstrings all in a flat garden green. Recently, he re-created the same pants for his 5-year-old, a testament to their durability and versatility. Light linen Oil/Lumber work coats have also become standard uniform in Sean Brock’s open kitchens.Â
Between furniture and clothing, the business is successful. But stitchers tend to leave, and Oil/Lumber recently lost a few longtime employees who moved on to other things. Kiyoshi Summers sees it as a natural feature of creative work. For the first time in a decade, he took a pause from apparel design in the fall and has just begun to consider the label’s next move.Â
“ The clothing industry as a whole is not great right now — a lot of bankruptcies,” he says. “It was a good time to pause and think. I’m trying to figure out the next phase. Do we go bigger and try to become a real player and scale up a little bit more? Or go the other route, do a couple special drops a year and make every piece an art piece?”
Talking to six of the city's most interesting designers and checking out some of Nashville’s best street style
