Dai Fujiwara goodness..

I must admit that I’m a total fashion tragic. Before coming to the course I was besotted by the idea of the perfect dress, the perfect photograph, the perfect magazine, the perfect designer… I loved reading about fashion, but only skimmed over the designers that were ‘in fashion’. I’m still in love with fashion but in a different (and surprising) way. I know more and have an appreciation for designers I know I wouldn’t have come across otherwise. I think you can lump any ‘alternative’ design house in the catergory. You know those ‘exploratory’ designers that create completely unwearable and weird pieces. I would have put Issey Miyake into that category. Knew the name, knew he was important but was like ‘what’s it all about Alfi?’ A week can change a lot, and now I’m a little in awe of Issey Miyake and as such the creative director, Dai Fujiwara. There’s been a little bit of information overload this week but I thought I’d summarise what his visit meant.

Design…in it’s truest form is exiting. I still have a complete love for fashion and pop culture, I think I always will. Fugiwara explained his process of design, and I was amazed by the research that went into his work. It started over each season and was original. He lead a team to find new discoveries which was surprising. I hadn’t paid much attention to the collections he was showing before, so hearing about the processes the studio went through and then been shown the images of the collection was great. There was a greater appreciation for the collections after I had heard the research behind each one. Style.com is a daily fix for me and I love reading the reviews, so I was really interested to read how it was interpreted by the media. Most of the ideas of the collections got through, but at the end of the day they are judging the aesthetic qualties of a collection, like anybody. And the same goes for my semester long research, at the end of the day it comes down to the end product, and everyone’s opinion won’t have been there every step of the way to see the collection developing. That’s fashion… Em asked Dai after his talk on Wednesday if the research always had to come back to the clothes. And it seemed obvious but listening to the development you could be mistaken for thinking that they just keep researching and researching. His answer was ‘of course, always’. And I guess that’s at the end of the day the common denominator for every designer, mainstream or not. It’s all about the body.

Our class discussion was a great insight into Dai’s views on his brand and the industry. I was surprised to hear he eventually wanted to become a teacher. My thesis this year is around fashion education and I was at ease to know that he sees education as a means to truly design. The fact is we wouldn’t be able to have this support and freedom if we were in the industry, thinking about the bottom line all the time. He commented that design is expanding your aim for the world, finding the un-thought. I’m paraphrasing but I liked this idea of the unthought. Something at the back of your mind that hasn’t been discovered yet, but it’s there! Actually now I’m not sure if that was Dai or Winnie. Haha, both are masters...