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Dissertation

visvim Fall and Winter 2024

When it comes to a theme for each seasonal collection, it is not something that is forced into existence, it is actually a string of thoughts consisting of things I may constantly feel in my daily life or things I feel are important, which are then contextualized and presented as a series of key words. For this season's theme, "In An Intuitive Manner," I wanted to take the opportunity to focus again on exactly that by, "reassessing my own feelings."

Category:		Philosophy

Date:		2024.07.30

Tags:		#fw24 #tobeIntuitive #visvim

To be Intuitive

We make a variety of choices in all kinds of situations in our daily lives, and depending on the action taken during those moments a lot of information may enter our thoughts from an external source, I believe this can be a catalyst for one to lose track of what their mind and body are truly yearning for. In order to create a thing you are attracted to, or something you feel is wonderful, one must access the "instinct" within without overthinking things with their mind. To achieve this, I think it is necessary to activate our five senses by working our bodies in an environment that is close as possible to nature and also by being in touch more with natural wind and light.

As I continued this process of reassessing my feelings and senses, it became apparent that the things I found beauty in and thought to be wonderful were made with natural materials and created with techniques that were influenced by nature. It was not a pre-determined decision to create something like that, but rather a direction I arrived at as a result of searching within myself.

This season we made a Coach Jacket (*1) and Blouson (*2) that utilizes silk, a material we have used much more in recent years. Silk as a material consists of raw silk that is sourced from silkworm cocoons and is a very functional material characterized by its warmth and superior hand feel that has been used for a variety of purposes, including kimonos for hundreds of years. I thought of reinterpreting the use of this silk that has a beautiful luster and soft drape by creating a more modern expression of it to make a material that is more nylon-like in feel. The dyed spots that were created when skein dyeing the silk stand out, giving the material an even greater depth.

The "Mawata" used for insulation (*3) is a type of silk material that takes silk cocoons treated in hot water which loosens them up before they are stretched out into sheets that get used for fill. As these sheets are placed on top of each other a layer of air is created between them which improves overall heat retention, it also does not bulk up as much as down (feathers) and has an ability to move softly along the body where frictional heat provides exceptional warmth. It has high hygroscopicity and allows moisture to permeate even when sweating and has seen use as a fill material for futon in Japan from a long time ago. When you catch a cold, wrapping yourself in a Mawata futon to sleep can be beneficial for healing. This sort of knowledge and use are not something taught in school, but rather wisdoms from life that continue getting passed down from one generation to another within their own families.

The "Cashmere Midsection Insulator" (*4) that I made for this collection is one such item. When I was little, my grandmother would often tell me, "don't let your stomach get cold." In martial arts (Budo), there is also the word "tanden" which refers to the abdomen. Nowadays methods like fasting are even considered to be important to maintain one's gut health, an indicator connected to overall human health; however long before such scientific verification of this belief, people perhaps intuitively sensed the importance of their stomach from simply living their day to day lives. Come to think of it, there are numerous expressions in the Japanese language related to the stomach and one's psychological state including "hara ga tatsu" (to be angered), "hara ni ochiru" (to understand and agree), "hara wo kukuru" (to make up your mind regardless of the outcome), "hara wo waru" (to be frank). This implies a profound awareness of the connection between body and mind. As people's lifestyles adapt to modern standards these old wisdoms and practices tend to get forgotten; I would like to connect these things to our modern lives. It is not my intent to simply duplicate the appearance of older things, but to rather evolve them in my own way so they feel beautiful to those of us living today and to also have an ability to make our daily lives more comfortable.