In recent posts we focused on architecture, but, as seen in multiple features in the past years, there are obvious links between this discipline and fashion.
These links and connections can be spotted not just in the actual finished clothes, but first and foremost in the fundamentals of fashion, that is the construction techniques and, to get inspired by this aspect, in the last few months we posted a pattern a month.
We are restarting posting patterns from today with images dedicated to architecture for the feet. The photographs in this post relate indeed to paper patterns for tabi socks.
These vintage patterns are available for sale on the Tatami Antiques site, an independent online marketplace for Japanese antiquities that offers great inspirations. Some of these patterns come in thin washi paper and they are accompanied by a booklet on how to make tabi published in Showa 16 (1941).
The patterns are sold by titcoret ($180 for the complete set of 25 patterns, including the booklet), a seller that often offers special items like kimonos and mini-kimonos for dolls.
Tabi socks became a fixation of many fashionistas after Belgian designer Martin Margiela, inspired by a trip to Japan that prompted him to think about a soft tabi shoe on a high heel, transformed this hybrid design he had imagined into his iconic split-toed tabi boots (in the documentary "Martin Margiela: In His Own Words" by Reiner Holzemer, the director films Margiela's hands as they show a wooden mould for tabi shoes and then a pair of his boots).
Margiela's fans may be interested in discovering how to make tabi socks or they could use the patterns for creative and conceptual projects.
A few days ago it was announced that Margiela will make a comeback as an artist in April, with an exhibition that will take place at the Lafayette Anticipations Fallery in Paris. The event will include his sculptures, photographs and installations, all previously unseen in public, so studying the construction techniques behind his designs may be a great way to keep ourselves busy as we wait for his artworks to be unveiled.
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