About Us
Kiraku’s Fantastic Journey
Hello I’m Martin Parnwell & for over 4 decades now I’ve been the exclusive founder & owner of Kiraku.
Kiraku was born in 1977 alongside my family business Natural Selection. Natural Selection covered the UK & Europe with warehouses in Wincanton, Italy, France & Spain & 10 retail shops in England. While Kiraku covered Asia, Australia & New Zealand suppling shops also in Japan & Singapore.
Kiraku & Natural Selection are both known & highly respected in their field, for being one of the first companies of their time, to adopt slow movement, eco, ethical ideals, giving back to nature by contributing to rainforest & endangered species charities. Who introduced, sourced & only used, when it wasn’t thought about or even popular, Eco, Sustainable, Recycled, Natural ranges like:- recycled cotton for shirts, dresses, trousers, rugs, bedspreads & cushions and non-toxic paints on boxes, vases, toys, bangles, necklaces, earrings and crafted hand blown recycled glass jugs, table glasses & bowls. All sourced directly from artisans whilst adopting a “Trade not Aid” stance, paying a fair price, living wage, caring for and about workers & their conditions, well before the ‘Fairtrade foundations’ were even founded.
When Natural Selection Ltd sold in 1998 to a successful competitor, Kiraku continued along its organic Eco path by moving into the UK becoming limited in 2011. In all those years my ethos & that of Kiraku’s Atelier of skilled Makers, Artisans, Craftspeople & Weavers who are from The UK, Asia, Ecuador & Madagascar is to bring everything back to its ‘roots’ rather than flitting between seasons or trends. To only create with love & passion, affordable, high quality, limited edition Prêt-A-Porter with the very best eco, sustainably sourced ingredients & materials made exclusively for Kiraku, where nothing is wasted, everything given a chance to become ‘A thing of beauty, comfortable every day, anytime, where ever life takes you. To hold beautiful memories, treasured. Loved, handed down. Completed but not finished’.