“The body connects to our first skin. The second skin is the clothes. Sometimes clothes explain the owner, and there are a lot of memories inside a dress. I never use a new dress. For me, with a new dress, I cannot start any-thing, and I am not interested in using a new dress because there are no memories or stores inside it”

I have read this quotes from a research paper on artist Chiharu Shiota.
Although without knowing further context or the background aspect of this quotation, I want to discuss only these four sentences here in front of us by my point of view, as an artist who expresses herself in clothes making.
 

The first two sentences strike me, as I have searched years of vocabulary for defining fashion, defining clothes making, defining the behavior of people pursuing trends; yet I forgot, fundamentally, my principle of making clothes 'wearable and comfortable art' is exactly the practice of believing clothes are just like our own skin; and to me, if a piece of clothes (here, not just one, but tons of patterns constructed garment) is not well sat on human corps, or not coordinate well with human movements, I will want to break free from it no matter how beautiful it was looking - and suddenly, this 'unfit' skin will be forgotten without any life form.
 

Perhaps us wanting to express better, and this is why we put on clothes which explains us.

So perhaps at the end, there is no pretentious way of wearing, only misunderstanding; there is no class-ism, only consciousness choice?
The clothes do explain our head, our memory, our act and expression, and by selecting what's the piece we want to own or collect, is exactly the same process of choosing a literature to read, a poem to gasp, a play to respire.
 

So now the question is back to: is there really no memory on a piece of new dress as Shiota has felt? It is highly possible from the blooming industrialization and capitalism growth era we live in; but I differ to let this system to define clothes.
 

I am also in a semi route of small production, but I do think it's by choice and value where I can inject memory of me and all the seamstresses to the new pieces being purchased or given to an owner. Not to mention the made-to-order piece, where the old savoir-faire and new trend of slow fashion is about - new clothes do still own a story and memory, and it is so precious when you collect them as your own second skin to express.

with love, x
A.

03.07.2018

Trend comes and goes, but us humans remained existing with the land.
 

A simple canvas, with shadow of branches and leaves;

we in - hale, this natural gift that mother earth provide.

We walk with the vain spread trails on the body of our mother seeking, feeling, calming -

we ex - hale, the thousands treads of sorrowfulness.

The system us humans created for trapping ourselves over, and over again.

How many times when we have an aching point on our corps

then we turn to ground for seeking comfort?

How many times when we have a rage rushing over our head

then we long for a walk in rain for cooling it off?

Trend comes and goes, but loving earth and returning to roots should not become one. It is an awareness, not a tool. If we believe what we see, and hear, we should also make effort to apply that to our life behavior.

Not saying tiny mistakes and imperfection cannot be tolerated, but at least act with consciousness, speak with truth, and follow it with honesty.

Let us really take time to think,

for once.

with love, x
A.

25.05.2018

The speed of creative process

Lately I had an interesting conversation with an artist I collaborated with (and I got lots of helpful advice from our "one-on-one" consulting session with no commercial sense involved.) The feedback I got from her is sort of confirmation of what I decided to pursue since a year ago and now I am so impatience to realize this project + direction of mine in order to share with you more.

But before to do that, I want to discuss about the speed of creative process in this industry.

While back in school, most of the fashion students were educated that our industry averagely produce 4 seasons throughout the year (which is already moderately speaking); and without any questions asked, this was kind of the minimum requirement that planted to our "speed-conscious" as a designer before even setting one foot to the real world.
 

After creating my eponymous label, I soon realized this "never self-doubt plantation" was not at all serving the sake of creation , but instead, it's designed to give the true glory (and sweat, tears and blood) to vocabularies such as "business and margin."
 

How fast you get tired of one garment you purchased? One week, one month, a couple of years...or never?

This indirectly related to how much soul-speeding process for a designer need to go through for proving each season he/she is not "out" nor "done" yet.
 

One beautiful pattern takes months or years to research and produced; will I be a less of a designer because I continue to use old pattern for creating new life out of it?

Will people become my "client" because I can meet their quantity/speed demand? Or it can be simply because of the time I invest with my eyes, my vision and my hand?

Just a thought or two on speed and time, until next time.

with love, x
A.

11.05.2018