Any info on the designer? The only info I found was in Japanese...
Anyhow here's the S/S 2006 collection:
(all pictures from www.japanesestreets.com)
Anyhow here's the S/S 2006 collection:
(all pictures from www.japanesestreets.com)
Sunao Kuwahara S/S 2006 Tokyo
- Thread starter Ella
- Start date
Okay it's supposed to be Sunao Kuwahara, can a mod change it please?
Here's a review on the collection:
(from http://japanesestreets.com/jsnews/article/53/sunao-kuwaharas-dangerous-liaisons)
Sunao Kuwahara's Dangerous Liaisons
By Paul McInnes, Monday October 31, 2005
Sunao Kuwahara created an extraordinary collection which appeared inspired by a Gallic mix of French royal courts and modern textiles. Lamp-shade shaped ruffled skirts, tiered skirts and Breton-striped tops prevailed in this step-back-in-time catwalk show.
Models wore court wigs and resembled Military dolls. Green pleated skirts and military green cardigans stole the first half of the show while the second half saw a slight change of direction with Goth like skull t-shirts and black silk pants, black jump-suits and what looked like an integrated denim pouch/skirt ensemble paired with a simple black tunic.
This was a show of two halves and it sometimes looked like a production of Dangerous Liaisons set on a council estate. Luckily for Kuwahara this eclectic mix worked, and the fusion of history and play on shapes was a real breath of fresh air for the attendant audience who eagerly awaited this show.
This stylized, beautifully crafted collection left the Tokyo audience suitably impressed and this Issey Miyake protégé showed that he can sculpt architectural fashion as good as anyone. This was a joy to behold.
Here's a review on the collection:
(from http://japanesestreets.com/jsnews/article/53/sunao-kuwaharas-dangerous-liaisons)
Sunao Kuwahara's Dangerous Liaisons
By Paul McInnes, Monday October 31, 2005
Sunao Kuwahara created an extraordinary collection which appeared inspired by a Gallic mix of French royal courts and modern textiles. Lamp-shade shaped ruffled skirts, tiered skirts and Breton-striped tops prevailed in this step-back-in-time catwalk show.
Models wore court wigs and resembled Military dolls. Green pleated skirts and military green cardigans stole the first half of the show while the second half saw a slight change of direction with Goth like skull t-shirts and black silk pants, black jump-suits and what looked like an integrated denim pouch/skirt ensemble paired with a simple black tunic.
This was a show of two halves and it sometimes looked like a production of Dangerous Liaisons set on a council estate. Luckily for Kuwahara this eclectic mix worked, and the fusion of history and play on shapes was a real breath of fresh air for the attendant audience who eagerly awaited this show.
This stylized, beautifully crafted collection left the Tokyo audience suitably impressed and this Issey Miyake protégé showed that he can sculpt architectural fashion as good as anyone. This was a joy to behold.
Ok, thanks for changing it. I found an article on him from http://metropolis.japantoday.com:
Slow motion
Despite being a self-confessed slouch, Sunao Kuwahara is one of Japan's most successful designers. Martin Webb finds out what makes him tick.
Dressed in a polo shirt and jeans, Sunao Kuwahara shuffles about his studio like he just got out of bed. With just a few weeks until his next collection is due to be unveiled on the Tokyo catwalk, the designer seems to be taking it all in his stride. "I'm a lazy person," he says in a barely audible whisper. "I always take the path of least resistance."
Such a confession seems hard to believe coming from a one-time protégé of notoriously demanding designer Issey Miyake and a man in charge of one of Japan's top-selling fashion labels. But, as the self-affacing designer explains, "If I don't do [the work] we don't move forward. I'm driven by anxiety."
Sunao Kuwahara
Home-grown
Born in 1960 in Hiroshima-ken, Kuwahara joined the Issey Miyake Design Office in 1989. His brand, now called sunaokuwahara, until last season retained the prefix I.S., belying its origins as the Issey Sport label once designed by Tsumori Chisato. Both designers are part of the A-net group and share a similar target audience, but sunaokuwahara's customer is arguably more introspective and intellectual-a reflection of its creator's own personality.
"I'm a stay-at-home," says Kuwahara, "I don't have much of a social life." While the designer does admit to the occasional mountain fishing trip, he also travels to Paris at least once every six months. A stopover in Germany during the return leg of his last trip was the inspiration for the Fall/Winter collection now in stores across Japan. "We visited some of the old castles along the river Rhine," he explains. "I saw an image of some medieval traveling performers who wore all sorts of clothes designed to lighten their load." The resulting collection featured layers of rough, fuzzy and frayed plaids with oversized pockets, sheer chiffon at the sleeves and midriff, and somber checked patterns. Models with long blond locks walked down the runway as if they had escaped from a tower a wicked witch had imprisoned them in.
Although Kuwahara insists his nationality doesn't have any impact on his creations, his work could certainly be seen as bearing the hallmarks of Japanese fashion intellectualism. But the designer says he's still searching for some philosophy to latch on to. "I feel like I'm always searching. You can make the pretense of having some kind of system after the fact-the same person is doing it so it's bound to have a commonality."
In fact, Kuwahara prefers to let ideas come to him rather than forcing designs out of a contrived conceptual framework. "What the human eye sees is limited," he says. "So for me it's about noticing or feeling things you hadn't noticed or felt before, things that were overlooked."
Creative control
Having been actively designing in the fashion business since he graduated from Vantan Design Institute in 1979, Kuwahara says his creative process has undergone a steady change. "These days I discover things as I go along. The order in which things get done sometimes turns out different from what the original intention was."
And it's the process of creation that this introverted artist is most fascinated with. "When something you've been working on is finished, there's no longer any meaning to it. Of course when someone buys it and wears it, that makes you happy but once the act of making the article is over, it's gone cold."
Kuwahara does want people to cherish his work and keep it for a long time-something of a paradox for someone in the fashion world. "I want people to wear my clothes for a long time, but I'm always making new things and, naturally, I want people to wear that, but I want people to wear my work for a long time so there's a bit of a conflict."
Kuwahara may claim to be lazy, and it's true that he doesn't seem to get animated about anything. But Japan's undying devotion to the latest fashion fads is frustrating for a man who largely ignores catwalk trends. "European people tend to have conventions, fundamental rules for each country. Compared with Western countries, Japan's tradition of clothing is short so we accept almost anything," he says. "Japanese people take whatever they think is good at the time and digest and consume it. It's easy for them to throw things away."
The contemplative designer, on the other hand, prefers the idea of the typical Japanese lunch box, or Makunouchi bento, with its sweet potato, hamburger, fried shrimp, etc. "It has a little bit of everything," Kuwahara says. "We want that as a nation I think. So, in terms of fashion, there's that strong desire to have a little bit of everything here."
Slow motion
Despite being a self-confessed slouch, Sunao Kuwahara is one of Japan's most successful designers. Martin Webb finds out what makes him tick.
Dressed in a polo shirt and jeans, Sunao Kuwahara shuffles about his studio like he just got out of bed. With just a few weeks until his next collection is due to be unveiled on the Tokyo catwalk, the designer seems to be taking it all in his stride. "I'm a lazy person," he says in a barely audible whisper. "I always take the path of least resistance."
Such a confession seems hard to believe coming from a one-time protégé of notoriously demanding designer Issey Miyake and a man in charge of one of Japan's top-selling fashion labels. But, as the self-affacing designer explains, "If I don't do [the work] we don't move forward. I'm driven by anxiety."
Sunao Kuwahara
Home-grown
Born in 1960 in Hiroshima-ken, Kuwahara joined the Issey Miyake Design Office in 1989. His brand, now called sunaokuwahara, until last season retained the prefix I.S., belying its origins as the Issey Sport label once designed by Tsumori Chisato. Both designers are part of the A-net group and share a similar target audience, but sunaokuwahara's customer is arguably more introspective and intellectual-a reflection of its creator's own personality.
"I'm a stay-at-home," says Kuwahara, "I don't have much of a social life." While the designer does admit to the occasional mountain fishing trip, he also travels to Paris at least once every six months. A stopover in Germany during the return leg of his last trip was the inspiration for the Fall/Winter collection now in stores across Japan. "We visited some of the old castles along the river Rhine," he explains. "I saw an image of some medieval traveling performers who wore all sorts of clothes designed to lighten their load." The resulting collection featured layers of rough, fuzzy and frayed plaids with oversized pockets, sheer chiffon at the sleeves and midriff, and somber checked patterns. Models with long blond locks walked down the runway as if they had escaped from a tower a wicked witch had imprisoned them in.
Although Kuwahara insists his nationality doesn't have any impact on his creations, his work could certainly be seen as bearing the hallmarks of Japanese fashion intellectualism. But the designer says he's still searching for some philosophy to latch on to. "I feel like I'm always searching. You can make the pretense of having some kind of system after the fact-the same person is doing it so it's bound to have a commonality."
In fact, Kuwahara prefers to let ideas come to him rather than forcing designs out of a contrived conceptual framework. "What the human eye sees is limited," he says. "So for me it's about noticing or feeling things you hadn't noticed or felt before, things that were overlooked."
Creative control
Having been actively designing in the fashion business since he graduated from Vantan Design Institute in 1979, Kuwahara says his creative process has undergone a steady change. "These days I discover things as I go along. The order in which things get done sometimes turns out different from what the original intention was."
And it's the process of creation that this introverted artist is most fascinated with. "When something you've been working on is finished, there's no longer any meaning to it. Of course when someone buys it and wears it, that makes you happy but once the act of making the article is over, it's gone cold."
Kuwahara does want people to cherish his work and keep it for a long time-something of a paradox for someone in the fashion world. "I want people to wear my clothes for a long time, but I'm always making new things and, naturally, I want people to wear that, but I want people to wear my work for a long time so there's a bit of a conflict."
Kuwahara may claim to be lazy, and it's true that he doesn't seem to get animated about anything. But Japan's undying devotion to the latest fashion fads is frustrating for a man who largely ignores catwalk trends. "European people tend to have conventions, fundamental rules for each country. Compared with Western countries, Japan's tradition of clothing is short so we accept almost anything," he says. "Japanese people take whatever they think is good at the time and digest and consume it. It's easy for them to throw things away."
The contemplative designer, on the other hand, prefers the idea of the typical Japanese lunch box, or Makunouchi bento, with its sweet potato, hamburger, fried shrimp, etc. "It has a little bit of everything," Kuwahara says. "We want that as a nation I think. So, in terms of fashion, there's that strong desire to have a little bit of everything here."
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*EllaH said:
i love this...this is exactly how i feel as well...
take everything that is good and use it the way you like...
ignore the 'rules'...
i think this applies to life in general....
great article and interview...
I especially love the first few groups posted and agreed ^ great interview ~ thanks for posting
Very pleasant attitude & ideas...and I love how he describes his inspiration for fall/winter
ps. when searching for pics of the (lovely) f/w collection tFS was top result...this site is such a great source of info
Very pleasant attitude & ideas...and I love how he describes his inspiration for fall/winter
ps. when searching for pics of the (lovely) f/w collection tFS was top result...this site is such a great source of info
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