Meeting in Collaboration

(this post is related to the art meets fashion evolution team project that i'm participating in. 

we're making things now, and bringing our creations to meetings for collaborative review. 

for some reason, many things japanese arrived independently at yesterday's meeting. i wanted to trace japanese pleating techniques because the techniques interest me as a surface textile designer in the form of shibori and as a student of art and design in the work of noguchi, miyake, and fortuny.

the project has led me back to looking at other folks' art. something i stopped doing after i realized that i would struggle with a design trying to make it resemble some imaginary, or so i thought, image in my head, only to realize at completion that i was trying to copy an image i'd seen. i find that when we are comfortable with art, it is because the art resonates with some image in our past or maybe even present.)

issey miyake's name came up in our meeting yesterday. (note: if you follow the link to mr. miyake's site, it is one of the most difficult to navigate that i've ever encountered. beautiful, but difficult.)

issey miyake 2009

Issey Miyake (Japanese, b. 1938). “Staircase Pleats” Dress, fall/winter 1994–95. Silver pleated polyester. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman, 2005 (2005.130.11).

"Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake grew up in Hiroshima and was there during the bombings. He later lost his mother to radiation exposure, and understandably does not like dwelling on the event." "I have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to put [the memories] behind me, preferring to think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy. I gravitated toward the field of clothing design, partly because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic.”

From Fashionista

issey miyake 2008 

so i revisited his site (forgive me, i love issey miyake and got carried away with the image thing) and also took a look at yohji yamamoto.

Yohji Yamamoto (Japanese, b. 1943). “Wedding Dress,” spring/summer 2000. Natural cotton muslin and ivory silk jersey with large laser-cut holes. Gift of Minori Shironishi, 2003 (2003.573.8a, b).

fortuny lamps

Delphos pleats by Fortuny

pleated and crushed fabric made me think of fortuny and shibori.

from the wearable art connection

From LeoState.com

but then I thought perhaps i'm being to literal and "light bulb" noguchi came to mind.

rice paper and bamboo are the humblest of the materials noguchi worked with. but the perfect materials for sustainability.

Final flight of fantasy was a mental image of dreadlocks in a traditional Japanese hairstyle. 

Dread locks

Traditional Japanese Hair style with contemporary accessories.

Back to cleaning the house.