1970s-1990s The Japanese Avant-garde

[nqth]

Thanks Space for the pics:-)
I am fascinated by how she uses the gigantic machines images in her book:-))

 

[maarit]

On topic of fashion and art, read this old thread

 

[softgrey]

ok this is slightly off topic...but since we are talking about the nature of an artist here's a quote by bob dylan:

"My father, who was plain speaking and straight talking said, 'Isn't an artist a fellow who paints?' when told by one of my teachers that his son had the nature of an artist. It seemed I'd always been chasing after something, anything that might lead me into some more lit place, some unknown land downriver. I had not the vaguest notion of the broken world I was living in, what society could do with you."

something to think about

reading the A magazine curated by yohji it mentions that dylan is one of yohji's faves...... also james taylor...he likes to play guitar in his free time but doesn't like to talk about it...
thanks for the link maarit....

 

[kit]

I've left a review of a book that's entirely relevant to this thread , in the ' Antwerp Six : The Belgian Avant-garde ' thread .


Definitely worth reading if you are a cerebral fashionista .

 

[travolta]

I found another article that explains more about APOC

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.04/miyake.html

 

[travolta]

from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3992/is_200105/ai_n8936766

The real implications of A-POC, however, go far beyond mere technical wizardry and retail design. With his new line, Miyake has established a solid concept and purpose for his clothing, something that seems at odds with today's notion of fashion and its tendency for decorative excess. While repeatedly eschewing such terms as "haute couture," "mode" or "fashion"-all of which implies the quest for novelty-this Japanese clothing designer wants to change the way clothing is perceived, created and worn.
As an exploration into the boundaries of fashion design, Miyake's project has been, to a large degree, a success. With his material ingenuity and keen eye for design, Issey and his studio have brought APOC from mere concept to concrete reality. But to put the A-POC philosophy into practice and to reach a much wider audience is, obviously, a much greater challenge. Theoretically, the mission of A-POC could be expanded worldwide, to cloth people of all customs and sizes-as seen in A-POC's promotional literature and photographs. But with the current market system, such an undertaking is not yet feasible, despite its potential for far-reaching change. As it stands, the current price of A-POC ranges anywhere from $100 to over $1000, which means that, despite its capacity to fit anyone and everyone, it is only available to a select few. With a new store planned in New York this fall and further plans for expansion, only time will tell if A-POC is permitted to fulfill its true promise.

Yet, throughout Miyake's concepts and forward thinking designs, he has persevered in redeeming and reaffirming humanity through technology, a trait that distinguishes the Japanese culture. As Miyake and his project so radically embodies, technology lies at the forefront of design, but it is not its most vital characteristic. He insists that, "It is what we do with our minds, our imaginations and our hands that is essential." With A-POC, Miyake may be giving design back to those for whom it matters most, and in the same stroke, offering us a chance to have a hand in how we shape the world and clothing around us.

Ecologically, Miyake's concern for all the material wasted within the design and fashion industry can be seen in the idea that A-POC embodies. Almost every square inch of fabric is or can be used. Instead of designing a style and then cutting cloth to match it, A-POC goes the other route by designing clothing that will fit onto the cloth. Globally, A-POC is also a response to the consumer's alienation from the fruits of his or her labor and an attempt to bridge this divide. With the concept behind Making Things and its continuation in A-- POC, Miyake directly addresses the problem of globalization, where one can find the same product in almost every country. The result of this globalized, cookie-cutter society is that people increasingly desire something more individual. Instead of identical styles or standard fits and sizes, A-POC allows people to not only have some sort of relationship with the clothing that they buy, but also to have some sort of input into how it all ends up.

 

[softgrey]

thanks kit...and thanks travolta..

i'm thinking this thread is seriously lacking some yohji...
i am reading the A magazine now...will try to add some more info...
it's interesting...the japanese are somewhat mysterious and full of surprises...
i find so many of yohji's responses in interviews to be cryptic and vague...
he seems very self-conscious....describes designing every collection as a painful process...

i learn more when others describe him...

 

[runner]

Not what has been seen before
Not what has been repeated
Instead, new discoveries
That look towards the future
That are liberated and lively
This is the Comme des Garcons
approach to creating clothes

From the 60s through the 90s, fashion has been the driving force of the times, evoking and influencing the mood of the age with its freedom of spirit and its energy. Yet in the past few years, fashion seems to have lost its direction, lost its sense of innovation and excitement, become too uniform and repetitive. Comme des Garcons has always been committed to its quest for the new and the unknown, to its experiments with the not-yet seen or felt, and is even more so now, when it appears that fashion is avoiding risks. Continually questioning, encouraging individuality, and looking to the future
- this is the Comme des Garcons approach to creating clothes.

from Comme des Garcons (S/S 1997)

 

[runner]

"But times do change and move continually."
- Edmund Spenser, "The Faerie Queene"

"Thou art not for the fashion of these times, Where none will sweat but for promotion."
- Shakespeare, "As you like it"

"For I dipp'd into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be..."
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Locksley Hall"

"The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us long before it happens."
- Rainer Maria Rilke, "Letters to a Young Poet"

from CDG flyer

 

[whizkit]

thanks kit...and thanks travolta..

i'm thinking this thread is seriously lacking some yohji...
i am reading the A magazine now...will try to add some more info...
it's interesting...the japanese are somewhat mysterious and full of surprises...
i find so many of yohji's responses in interviews to be cryptic and vague...
he seems very self-conscious....describes designing every collection as a painful process...

i learn more when others describe him...

I think it is a japanese thing to not be too straight forward and say things in a round about way, implying things instead of saying it directly. I could be over generalizing.

 

[softgrey]

no ..i think that's generally true whizkit...i had forgotten...
it can be rather fascinating...as you try to figure out what the heck yohji is really trying to say...

but then it gets frustrating after awhile...

 

[Estella*]

collaborations


[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]miyake and morimura, dress from the guest artists series 1996

kawakubo for cunningham's ballet "scenario"

yamamoto for kitano's "dolls"

and my apologies if we had this article on miyake yet: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_2_87/ai_53868147
[/font]

 

[softgrey]

thanks anna karina...i had never seen the merce cunningham costumes before...any idea what year that's from?...
the article you posted about the miyake exhibit is interesting...
i'm so glad i saw that...it's funny...because i had no idea how good it would be...and i don't think many poeple really knew about it because it was off the beaten track...at least here in nyc...

this was the best part for me...


"Miyake's mechanically animated installation "Jumping" ...
The "Jumping" clothes are suspended from the ceiling at the ends of wires, set into motion at different paces and in different directions by motors, which cause them to ascend and descend, whirl, jerk and inflate, like marionettes. The clothes trap air currents as they move, as well as during their moments at rest. Miyake's forms are often inspired by nature, and titled accordingly: Mantis (Autumn/Winter 1989), Escargot (Spring/Summer 1990), Tidal Wave (Autumn/Winter 1992), or Shell (Autumn/Winter 1994), for example. The veining and leaf-weight delicacy of Bouncing Dress (Spring/Summer 1994) seem quite at home in this Paris habitat where nature is on view beyond the glass walls. (This urban wilderness is itself a Cartier-commissioned work by Lothar Baumgarten.) Others, such as Flying Saucer (Spring/Summer 1994) or Minaret (Spring/Summer 1995), float like paper lanterns.

The "Jumping" garments are controlled by electronic sensors that start up the action in response to the movements of gallery visitors. Subtly collaborative with the audience, this innovative system keeps changing the installation's tempo, while also echoing the energy conservation practice of the French system of minuterie (where a light is turned on in a semi-public space, such as in an apartment building's entry hall, only at the time of use, and after a few minutes automatically turns itself off). "

 

[Estella*]

you're welcome softgrey!
from www.dlartists.com

Scenario, with music by Takehisa Kosugi and design by Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, was seen for the first time at the Next Wave Festival at Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, in October 1997.

i wish i had seen the exhibition, it sounds awesome!

 

[droogist]

^ I was at the premiere of that piece at BAM, it was actually rather underwhelming. The lumps were amusing, but a lot of the costumes were actually quite constricting and didn't do the dancers any favors...I think it made the performance more about spectacle and less about dance. In the first half of the program they performed a piece without the CdG costumes, and I think the dance with the costumes suffered greatly by comparison. Something of a failed experiment, imo...

anna karina, thanks for posting the still from "Dolls," I'd almost forgotten about it...that movie was just gorgeous. Although part of me couldn't help wondering how that homeless couple were able to afford all those fabulous outfits.

 

[Estella*]

^ yes!

that's interesting about the lumps, i can imagine it. i know scenario only from pictures and thought it very intriguing...

 

[softgrey]

^ I was at the premiere of that piece at BAM, it was actually rather underwhelming. The lumps were amusing, but a lot of the costumes were actually quite constricting and didn't do the dancers any favors...I think it made the performance more about spectacle and less about dance. In the first half of the program they performed a piece without the CdG costumes, and I think the dance with the costumes suffered greatly by comparison. Something of a failed experiment, imo...

anna karina, thanks for posting the still from "Dolls," I'd almost forgotten about it...that movie was just gorgeous. Although part of me couldn't help wondering how that homeless couple were able to afford all those fabulous outfits.

thanks for the firsthand account droogist...i think that 'lump-y' collection was really over the top myself...it's when rei does stuff like that that you know she's really not in it for the commercial aspect..because we KNOW that did NOT SELL...

runner told me about that movie...i haven't seen it yet but it looks amazing...

 

[softgrey]

from Comme des Garcons (S/S 1997)

thanks runner...love that...

 

[nqth]

i absolutely see dries s/s 04 collection there...from style.com
dries van noten...seems like this is strongly influenced by comme...

and Junya, too SS98 :-)

 

[MaLkAv]

runner told me about that movie...i haven't seen it yet but it looks amazing...

OT: Rent the DVD soft, I am a TakeshiKitano-addicted and I can tell you that is one of his better movies (together with "Brother" and "Hana-Bi").

Yamamoto worked for the clothing also in "Brother", which is another recent movie by Kitano. Zatoichi was set in medieval Japan so Kitano went for another man, but I hope that the partnership between Takeshi and Yohji will continue in the future.

The timeline is:

-previous kitano's movies-

Brother
Dolls
(Yohji designed clothing in both of these ^)

Zatochi (traditional medieval japanese clothing made by Kazuko Kurosawa)

so what I am trying to tell you in my rough english is that since the partnership was set up recently, we may see this duo again in the near future.

anyway, go and see Dolls, it is absolutely amazing!