The Tantilizing Textiles of Japan Creation 2008

8 Dec 2008 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Fashion, Japan

The Tantilizing Textiles of Japan Creation 2008

One of the flashy textiles from Japan Creation 2008.

Chances are you know the names of several Japanese fashion designers, heavy-weights like Rei Kawakubo or Yohji Yamamoto, and maybe even some up and coming ones like Nao Yagi and Hokuto Katsui from Mint Designs, who we’ve covered before. But what about all the unsung heroes of fashion, like the pattern cutters and textile manufacturer? In fact, while the Tokyo collections may have just wrapped up their presentation for the spring season, the textile manufacturers are one season ahead, having already prepared their wares for next year’s fall season. PingMag headed down to the Japan Creation textile fair to check out the colors and textures that will be influencing Japanese fashion come autumn 2009 and beyond.

Written by Rebecca Milner

Yasuhiro Yasuda’s “Happy Mad Sad Fun.”

There were tempting displays from hundreds of manufacturers, but we made a beeline for the winning entries in the textile design competition. These extraordinary fabric prototypes were selected among those submitted by individuals, established manufacturers, and student designers. Here are a few that we’d like to share with you.

First of all there is the clever work from Wise Textiles’ Yasuhiro Yasuda, with an intriguing holograph effect. Titled Happy Mad Sad Fun, the eye-catching fabric earned the top prize in the artistic creation category.

Megumi Aikawa’s “Cocoon.”

Color and texture seemed to be the name of the game, and fortunately there was no rule against touching the swatches. We couldn’t help running our hands over Megumi Aikawa’s Cocoon, which snagged the best newcomer’s award, and Mizuki Mihara’s woolly topography braille3, which placed in the artist category.

Mizuki Mihara’s “braille3.”

Kiyoshi Nishida’s “salt shrinked” piece (left) and Natsuki Hirosei’s “Flash.”

Now we move on to some interesting techniques used in the creation of some of the entries. To create his cotton interpretation of stained glass, Kiyoshi Nishida from Kobe collective Art Uni used a hand-worked “salt shrinking” method.

Then we have to mention Flash by Natsuki Hirose, which uses plastic “bubble wrap” air packing that has been heated, pressed flat, and decorated with embroidered starbursts. Can we have this in an umbrella please?

Speaking of re-using materials, there were plenty of eco-themed entries on hand. Miyako Noro created Waste Threads and…, made up of wispy strands of wool leftover from the weaving process and held together with thin discs of polyethylene.

Rui Nomura’s “Moco Moco Camel.”

Meanwhile, Rui Nomura of Factory created Moco Moco Camel by spinning hairs shed from camels belonging to Mongolian tribespeople, resulting in a shrink-washed, acid dyed fuzzy red cloth. We want to know who collected all the camel hair!

Created by Sakai Obex Technical Center’s Kotsu Sato and Kyohei Doken.

As Japan is well known for its technological advancements, we expected to see some interesting works in this category. Our favorite was the shiny silver fabric made from threads of spun glass created by Chikara Sato and Kyohei Doken from Sakai Obex Technical Center. This highly durable fabric is actually intended for industrial purposes, although the manufacturer hinted that it might also find a good use in the world of fashion. Fancy an industrial strength belt or bag?

Miyako Noro’s “Waste Threads and…” and Tatsuro Hato’s “Step.”

Among the student entries, we came across the moody painted piece titled Step from Bunka Fashion College student Tatsuro Hato. Look closely and you’ll see that there are actually overlays of frayed, gauzy cotton on top for a nice subtle texture.

Tomonori Azuma’s “Les Dinosaures” (left) and Risa Nakamura’s “Leaf.”

As for prints, we certainly wouldn’t mind sporting the 3D style print Les Dinosaures by Bunka Fashion College graduate student Tomonori Azuma, or the idyllic camouflage of Leaf, from Tama Art University’s Risa Nakamura.

Next, we headed to the “Design Collaboration” section to see the results of a project that had Japan Fashion Week designers work closely with textile manufacturers in order to develop new materials and designs simultaneously. This would hopefully raise the profile of textile manufacturers, not to mention help them understand more deeply the needs of the designers and encourage more designers to work with them in the creation of original fabrics.

Mint Designs’ collaborations with Kishu Pile Fabrics Industrial Association and Ichikawa Co.

Previously mentioned Mint Designs teamed up with Ichikawa Co. to produce the delightfully named Murray Spangle, a printed crystalline fabric studded with translucent sequins. This surprisingly light and supple water-resistant material is designed especially for rain gear.

The designers also collaborated with Kishu Pile Fabrics Industrial Association to create a ribbed mohair coat dotted with colorful pop-out bobbles, an eye-catching design.

Aguri Sagimori adds Edogawa Rampo text to this scarf.

Meanwhile Aguri Sagimori got literary with her latest collection, featuring textiles both printed and embroidered with texts from famous detective novelist Edogawa Rampo.

Tailored jacket with Edogawa Rampo text on the lining.

Both the scarf and the lining of the tailored jacket contain an entire story! Marumasu Co. worked on the printed material, with Nakae Embroidery doing the stitching.

Everlasting Sprout teams up with Charmant Co.

The design duo of Keiichi Muramatsu and Noriko Seki from Everlasting Sprout worked with lace manufacturer Charmant Co. to create a nostalgic antique-finish lace. It follows in the footsteps of the exciting sculptural dresses from the duo’s show held at the Puk Puppet Theater in Shinjuku earlier this year.

Lastly, we leave you with a few colorful samples from the main floor. Don’t they make you wish you were a fashion designer, so that you could play with them?

Samples from the show floor.

So there you have it, some of the textures and prints we can look forward to wearing in the not too distant future!

8 Comments

  1. I am in love with that Edogawa Rampo scarf. I doubt I could afford it, though.

    Posted by: Nell on December 9th, 2008 at 3:16 am

  2. Very cool stuff….

    Posted by: okinawa on December 9th, 2008 at 11:01 am

  3. Wow, amazing colors. Also the photos are just fantastic, I feel like the texture is touchable through my screen.

    Posted by: Dara on December 9th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

  4. [...] aussi beaucoup aimé [cet article] sur la “Japan Creation textile fair” qui s’est tenue à Tokyo. Quelques [...]

    Posted by: Things I love Thursday « Cocteau’s Dress on December 12th, 2008 at 7:55 am

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    Posted by: Japan Creation 2008 on Ping « LegWork on December 13th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

  6. Does this occur in clothing technology? Now I think this is what I wanna be, too!

    Posted by: Arianne on December 20th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

  7. Hi there

    I would like to introduce you to urbanpup.com, we are a new company based in Ireland offering a website for the fashion conscience pet owner filled with essential must have presents and gifts.

    UrbanPup.com was founded by pet lovers who are equally avid followers of fashion. We loved the idea of looking after our pets and keeping them warm and safe but in style, but when we looked around we could see that there were a lot of clothes available for pets but nothing that could be described as couture or high fashion. We wanted to dress our pets in high fashion and have them looking like a million dollars, so based on that concept that we launched UrbanPup.com.

    The philosophy of the Company is to provide the fashion conscience with stylish couture for their pets. The range provides all the clothing and accessories that your dog would ever need from stylish coats and pretty dresses to stunning lead & collar sets.

    We want to keep our customers and their pooches on trend; so take a look at some of our key tartan pieces, inspiration straight from the catwalk. Urbanpup.com has already been tipped as the one to watch with it attracting attention from around the globe, within its first month of business.

    Our Beverly Hills Chihuahua Dress was featured in the recently released Disney movie ‘Beverly Hills Chihuahua’ as can be seen on the white Chihuahua Chloe, our Black Tuxedo was worn on the Red Carpet Premier of Paramount Pictures UK, for the movie, “Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging” in London. Also in stock is the pink satin dress that supermodel Beth Ostrosky’s dog wore for her wedding to Howard Stern.

    Kind regards

    Donna Kelly
    http://www.urbanpup.com

    Posted by: Donna Kelly on December 28th, 2008 at 11:22 pm

  8. thank you very much. good work

    Posted by: hairstyles on October 11th, 2009 at 7:20 am

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