Mintdesigns: Lacy Balloon Apparel

5 Nov 2007 Category: Fashion, Features, Japan

Mintdesigns: Lacy Balloon Apparel

Actually, Mint Designs do fashion - but also all sorts of cute collaborations as well. This one, for example, is a little lobster named HENRI created with toymaker Medicom Toy. Available at nuan+.

Tokyo-based mintdesigns might look like a stylish fashion label. Indeed, the designer duo Nao Yagi and Hokuto Katsui boast experience as assistants to Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen respectively. But mint see things in the broader terms of product design - or anything else inspiring that may come their way. Since 2001, they’ve been taking simple, everyday apparel, socks for example, and trying to make them better. Time for PingMag to chat with the pair at their studio in Shibuya.

Written by Rebecca Milner

Mintdesigns’ Hokuto Katsui and Nao Yagi take a break in front of their studio in a quiet side street in the otherwise hectic Shibuya. Note her slippers from their Medicom Toy collaboration. Courtesy of Mint Designs.

Keeping with their not-so-traditional style, mintdesigns love to present their playful designs in a laid-back atmosphere. In the latest Japan Fashion Week their show took place in the Shu Uemura Sanctuary, a high-end spa in consumer complex Tokyo Midtown. This luxurious retreat seemed made for a catwalk with its pure white walls, ceiling and floors that gave a fluffy, floating-in-the-clouds setting for their new collection, entitled “the flying girls 1808.”


Mintdesigns’ Spring/Summer 04 collection: Prints! Courtesy of mintdesigns.

And even more of those colourful patterns! Courtesy of mintdesigns.

So, what have you been working on lately?

Hokuto: Each season we have a theme, like a new material or technique: Our first collection was all calico, the next season was cut & sew. This time…

Nao: …this time the focus was the story of “Flying Girls.”

Hokuto: Indeed, the theme has become more important to us.


Spring/Summer 06: Mintdesigns are best known for their 3D lace prints… Courtesy of mintdesigns.

…that spice up all their apparel. Courtesy of mintdesigns.

Why?

Nao: When we encounter new materials or, for example, factories that we want to work with, that becomes our focus. Lately we are content to continue working with the ones we have and so we’ve not been searching so much for new ones. But, of course, we’re always open if we meet the right people. I’ve been thinking I’d like to try knit.

Balloons with cute patterns! From the “Dame ni ikiru” Spring/Summer 07.

Their remarkable “Dame ni ikiru” collection, Spring/Summer 07: Mint Designs’ first theme roughly translates as “outlaw”… Courtesy of mintdesigns.

…and was inspired by the American movie, Ghost World from 2001. Courtesy of mintdesigns.

Really? So, what’s the story of the flying girls 1808 of your latest collection?

Hokuto: The year 1808 is supposed to be Meiji era-like. Nowadays, we get so much information from TV and the internet, but it certainly wasn’t like that 200 years ago. We wanted to express that sense of wonder people must have felt and this romantic dream that science would have held for them.

Nao: Then, there was still so much of the world that was unknown and every new discovery would have been exciting. We wanted to show that through the motif of the flying machines and balloons.


For their latest “the flying girls 1808″ Spring/Summer 08 collection, the designers started by making the balloon prints… Courtesy of mintdesigns.

…and then used the balloon theme to create these oversized silhouettes. “the flying girls 1808″ Spring/Summer 08. Courtesy of mintdesigns.

Flying machines?

Nao: We got quite interested in these old flying machines.


An enticing pattern also used in their Autumn/Winter 07/08 collection, “Midnight Book Club.” TILE SOCKS available at nuan+.

Hokuto: …their design and construction. After that, we saw all these old images and thought about how we could somehow transfer this to fashion. So, we created prints of zeppelins and balloons, but also applied this idea to the shape of the clothes themselves.

During the show, I was thinking that these clothes look fun to wear and must be comfortable. My male friend, meanwhile, thought some of the shapes were sexy. Do you design with a certain person in mind?

Nao: People with their own style.

Hokuto: Not people who are into fashion, but like design, maybe.


I want those! SLIPPERS by Mint Designs for Medicom Toy, available at nuan+.

And who could honestly say no to this TOTE BAG SMALL by Mint Designs with Medicom Toy? Available at nuan+.

Nao: If you pay too close attention to fashion, it becomes difficult to tell what is good design and what isn’t. But if someone has a broader interest and checks out all kind of things like art, product design, and architecture, he or she will be a better judge of good design in fashion as well. Really, if you think about architecture and product design, these are not just things that last one season, right?

The puzzling wall project was installed two times: as a magazine house for Casa Brutus called “muji gorgeous,” April 2004, and for 21_21 Design Sight (as shown here.)

Mint’s knitting project for Peanuts: “Happiness is a 55th Anniversary.” Photo by Takanori Tejima.

You often have some pretty special collaborations like those super-cute patterned house wear items you did last year with Medicom Toys and the mobile phone, phone cards, designs for provider KDDI/AU this season. What’s next in terms of improving everyday design?

Nao: Architecture would be good. Not in a gallery but a place that people actually use, like a station building. The design of these useful spaces is terrible.

Hokuto: The textiles used in public spaces, like the seats on a public bus or taxi - or even a bench.

Now that would be nice to see - this cute lace in Tokyo’s taxis! Courtesy of mintdesigns.

Nao: …to make them a little more fun… Taxis, really… The feeling of getting in one of those is gross…

K: …with all that weird lace!


Mintdesigns’ store in the basement of Shibuya Parco 1 - with a warm feel…

…and a sweet little house for the kids while the parents go shopping. Created for Esquire Japan - called “touch of actus 2006.”

Oh, we’d love to see a Tokyo taxi with your laces! Thanks mintdesigns! We look forward to seeing more of your collaborations.

88 Comments

  1. i wanna dress like that..

    Posted by: b. on November 6th, 2007 at 2:53 am

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    Posted by: Law on November 6th, 2007 at 5:09 am

  3. Meiji era? Wish you had pursued their thinking behind the ‘flying girls’ theme a bit more in the interview, because it seems to be anchored to something entirely different from history.

    Posted by: o. on November 6th, 2007 at 10:34 am

  4. Oh! I can’t believe you are the first one to catch that mistake! Duly noted.

    Posted by: Rebecca on November 6th, 2007 at 11:46 am

  5. But it is a very interesting mistake to me - it shows that these very talented and creative designers are not reading history books or looking up aviation invention history when they work on the theme of their collection. So I just meant to say that I wish we knew more about what unconventional sources of inspiration they draw from! Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days? Miyazaki’s Anime work? The ads on the JR trains right now featuring people brooding with big puffy thought baloons?

    Posted by: o. on November 6th, 2007 at 1:50 pm

  6. Or what it says about writers and editors hanging on designers’ every word without question!

    Actually, the original Japanese from my transcription of the interview reads “明治っぽい” (Meiji-like), unfortunately the Japanese version of the article on this site reads like the English one, which is an edited, condensed version of my original translation. My appologies to the designers!

    Though the timing is still off, the original phrasing makes more sense, as the inspiration for the designs, the fascination with scientific modernity, is more Meiji-like than Edo and the date 1808 seems to be rather arbitrary selected, chosen because it happens to be 200 years before the collection will hit the stores.

    Posted by: Rebecca on November 7th, 2007 at 12:14 am

  7. oh, those dresses.
    i love them!

    Posted by: maggienikole on November 7th, 2007 at 12:29 pm

  8. [...] PingMag Scritto da Shin Yu il 7 Novembre, 2007Tags: donna, giappone, [...]

    Posted by: From Japan: Mint Designs – Frizzifrizzi.it on November 7th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

  9. So lovely and playful. Adorable.

    Posted by: karin on November 10th, 2007 at 10:35 pm

  10. i’m doin a fashion story about patterns right now, and these looks confirm my thoughts… real zeitgeist!

    online soon on http://lynnandhorst.blogspot.com/

    Posted by: Horst on November 21st, 2007 at 1:38 am

  11. i love this picture. when was it publish

    Posted by: kurye on February 22nd, 2008 at 4:13 am

  12. this just are amazing design it’s so cool.
    I love the idea so much!!

    Posted by: CiaraLin on March 29th, 2008 at 10:30 am

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  14. [...] no responses Tokyo-based mint designs made up of the design duo Nao Yagi and Hokuto Katsui who boasts experience as assistants to Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen respectively. Incorporating beautiful prints with innovative designs, it’s a winning combination {interview}. [...]

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