In yesterday's post we looked at artists who created works with salvaged materials and found objects, a practice that showed their resilience, tenacity and hope. Let's continue the thread today and briefly ponder on fashion designs based on the same principles, resulting in inventive assemblages of materials.
Writtenafterwards' designers Yoshikazu Yamagata and Kentaro Tamai (who left the label in 2009) often based their collections on these principles.
Writtenafterwards was established by Yamagata (who also founded the Coconogacco fashion design course to allow students to be more experimental in fashion) and Tamai in 2007. Both graduated from Central Saint Martins and served as design assistants, Yamagata for John Galliano and Tamai for Margaret Howell.
The theme of their Autumn/Winter 2009 collection was "Graduate Fashion Show - 0 Points" and the designs were inspired by graduation collections ("0 points" was also a reference to academic grades), starting points for students aiming to become fashion designers.
The designs included in the collection were made with leftover scraps from actual graduation projects at fashion and art schools. This exercise in putting together bits and pieces from a variety of projects represented a metaphor for the designers, a way to try and find the remnants of creativity and unlock the potential of discarded materials deemed to have zero value.
Among the various designs included in this collection there was also an asymmetrical sheath dress made with paper, packing tape, pearls, shells, plastic forks, aluminum foil and two CDs that highlighted the breasts. All these elements didn't form just a decorative surface, but the actual structure of the dress that didn't include any fabric.
There were more assemblages of materials in further collections including "The Seven Gods" (October 2012), in which Yoshikazu Yamagata created a fashion narrative in which Adam, after leaving Eden, decides to become a fashion designer, but also works in a day job, collecting trash every to support himself. Adam makes his first collection, inspired by the "flea market" theme, with the scraps he collects during his job. After showing his collection, Adam dies.
"The Gods of Seven Costumes" - a reference to the Seven Lucky Gods representing different types of luck, that is good health, longevity, wealth, knowledge, happiness, art, and beauty - made their appearance at the end of the writtenafterwards' show.
The designs of the costumes - that looked like accumulations of all sorts of materials - was directly derived from the Japanese tradition of the kumade rake, a symbol of good luck covered in a variety of auspicious objects.
So, remember, there are wonderful narratives in the most unlikely assemblages of objects, you just need to listen to the items you find and allow them to reveal you their stories to unlock your imagination.
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