Hi! Fashion Publication
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12 August—12 November 2017 National Design & Craft Gallery Kilkenny 1 December—29 April 2018 Farmleigh Gallery Dublin Curated by Gemma A. Williams Hi! Fashion has been produced by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland in 2017 as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival and marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Japan. Hi! Fashion is supported by the Japan Foundation. INDEX FOREWORD — KAREN HENNESSY 05 WHO SPEAKS TRUE CRAFT — MARLO SAALMINK 07 REFORM DEFORM PERFORM TRANSFORM — GEMMA A. WILLIAMS 08—13 ANREALAGE 18—19 ÚNA BURKE 20—21 LAOISE CAREY 22—23 SYBIL CONNOLLY 24—25 COMME DES GARÇONS 26—27 AIDEEN GAYNOR 28—29 LAINEY KEOGH 30—31 DEREK LAWLOR 32—33 RICHARD MALONE 34—35 ISSEY MIYAKE 36—37 KENTA NISHIMURA 38—39 JOHN ROCHA 40—41 DANIELLE ROMERIL 42—43 MICHAEL STEWART 44—45 MAIKO TAKEDA 46—47 NORITAKA TATEHANA 48—49 WRITTENAFTERWARDS 50—51 KANSAI YAMAMOTO 52—53 YOHJI YAMAMOTO 54—55 NATIONAL DESIGN & CRAFT GALLERY PROGRAMME 56 CURATOR’S BIOGRAPHY 61 CREDITS & COLOPHON 63 FOREWORD Through the National Design & Craft Gallery programme, the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland continually seeks to exhibit the skill, creativity and innovation of designers and makers who push the boundaries of their craft. Placing Irish work within an international context allows us to consider how processes and materials in Ireland both correlate and contrast with those of other countries. Hi! Fashion explores and celebrates the commonalities and diferences in fashion design between Ireland and another island nation, Japan. Both countries have long histories of craft and tradition, with a cultural reach far beyond their own shores. This exhibition of garments and accessories from the two islands highlights mutual infuences as well as exchange of materials and techniques over the past six decades. We invited Gemma A. Williams to curate Hi! Fashion, in collaboration with ROJI, to draw together the threads of the two nations’ textile and cultural connections to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Japan. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the Japan Foundation for their support and to those who kindly provided garments on loan for Hi! Fashion. Karen Hennessy Chief Executive Design & Crafts Council of Ireland WHO SPEAKS TRUE CRAFT Fearful. Only in this. Spin me ‘round. Swaddled in heavy cottons. Eyes padded with washed silks. United. Uniforms of self. Recognise this. Breathe on me. This place of now. Fleeting strands of knotted hair. Two shoulders. Resting in your arms. Speak not of me. Salty lips tell no lies. Tangled great-coats. Billowing in the wind. Together. Slashing rains. Walk. Hide forever. Fearful. Where are they. Huddled underneath knit sheeting. Here we are. Some day. I swear. In a society of constant forward motion, self- far away from the glitzy high street neon lights. curating and blasé attention spans, context is Here we fnd a steady collection of aware often forlorn. For many, the ‘here-now’, instant designers, that have accepted the fact, they too, visual gratifcation of fashion weighs more must savour traditional craftsmanship. They do heavily than any profound tactile experience. things diferently, partly as an homage to the Creation is not just image, it is a culmination of artisans who came before; those who never deep research, endless adjustment, tradition knew another way. Some of these instigators and meticulous artistry. As the measurement are gathered here, uniquely poised alongside of couture no longer seals the faith of luxury one another, bridging past, present and future, houses, where do we fnd experimentation and in a marvellous collage of emotive sartorial commentary? We live in times of a new textile irreverence. As design is real. It takes time. It industry, one that is forced to adapt to the takes hands. It deserves our attention. This is whims of an ever expanding market; and us, the beauty. choosier consumer. Is there still room for historic mills, slow Marlo Saalmink committed processes and cognitive tailoring? Fashion journalist, creative director and lecturer Luckily, a silent movement has gained traction, REFORM DEFORM PERFORM TRANSFORM Hi! Fashion celebrates cycles of infuence and inspiration, process and practice. It presents garments spanning six decades from Ireland and Japan’s most innovative designers, and marks the 60th of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Japan. By prioritising the object, it illustrates how slow, silent fashion can speak volumes with regard to craft, concept and ceremony, poetry, precision and beauty. While fashion is now a global economic driver, Hi! Fashion aims to reframe the role of fashion it is often considered frivolous and largely within culture, to speak of new things, new misunderstood due in part to the multifaceted, dimensions and interchanges with society. As contradictory nature of the industry. On the one well as showcasing the very new, this exhibition hand, global exhibitions of dress are reaching serves as a reminder of the long traditions new heights in popularity, on the other, the true in Irish fashion and new creative directions poetry of a garment is constantly disintegrating. which situate the industry globally. Trailblazing Yet fashion’s infuence permeates all aspects of designers such as Sybil Connolly, John Rocha and society. Firstly, designers constantly challenge Lainey Keogh made their mark internationally, assumptions, devising constructions which producing designs which confounded and deviate from traditional systems, in often challenged suppositions of Irish identity. surprising ways. Our choice of dress enables us Reworking local materials like linen and wool to either conform to ideals, or reform ourselves with considered craftsmanship and sincere providing quiet resistance to accepted norms. construction, they frmly placed fashion from Designs may deform the silhouette, sculpting Ireland on the world stage. This exhibition draws new possibilities for the anatomy. Finally, in Japanese fashion, embracing its nuances collections perform on the runway, yet in daily which include innovative subversions of life, garments can be transformed into tools for silhouette, gender, beauty and textile. Hi! Fashion facing our environment. This exhibition invites is not intended as a compare or contrast, nor as the visitor to acknowledge fashion within an historical overview, although the garments the gallery context and consider its maligned do speak to historical references. Rather, it is an presence in culture. exploration of free-form connections in materials and practice, a dialogue of connections His fabrics are intensively researched, produced instigated by an assembly of garments and and prioritised within cutting techniques. In accessories. It is a visual essay which considers this way, garments are perfected and become the meeting of two countries. more than products, they become tangible representations of design culture. Both countries have a deep appreciation for strong cultural heritages based on literature, A deep connection with landscape and a desire nature, craft and tradition. There are profound to be close to nature imbues the culture of both and internationally respected literary traditions countries, which is evidenced in a shoot by in both countries with moments of reference Ferdinando Scianna in stony Connemara during traced across this great history. Japanese ghosts the 1990s and featured in Yohji Yamamoto’s haunt the pages of numerous books written seminal Y’s catalogue. Following Yamamoto’s by Lafcadio Hearn while fusions are evidenced focus on anonymity, locals were asked to pose in poet Seamus Heaney’s use of the Japanese in relaxed workwear, the wild countryside Haiku, or the adaption of Noh theatre by W. B. acting as a backdrop to the stark black and Yeats. In the fantastical Red Riding Hood inspired white imagery. Small boys smiled from inside ensemble from Tokyo-based writtenafterwards, oversized white shirts which dance through real life pervades the fairytale with a stark felds and girls peered, barely distinguishable, reminder of the dystopic disaster-prevention from overgrown landscapes. This mutual respect hoods used during the second world war by for the environment can be seen in the patterns Japanese school children. In her graduate of recent graduate Laoise Carey’s foral printed collection, Aideen Gaynor drew on Japanese and padded jacket. Her research into folk straw writer Haruki Murakami to create a voluminous handcrafts is echoed in the pedal straw of black tafeta ensemble which aims to connect Yamamoto’s visor coolie or the tatami-inspired two co-existing worlds, illustrating the great Mushiro Waistcoat from Issey Miyake. Seasonality power of the written word as inspiration. also infuses Miyake’s vibrantly futuristic print embedded upon a sculptural Caulifower top. Historically and geographically, these Islands were singular and self-sufcient, however a The exhibition considers four themes: reform, desire to westernise during the 1960s and 1970s deform, perform and transform to navigate this saw a loss in favour of a variety of traditions selection of 23 pieces. Fluidity in selection and handcrafts, including weaving, thatching means that the viewer may assign meaning to the and lace-making. Although production has objects, making their own links of commonality gradually declined in Ireland, in the 1980s among exhibits. Hi! Fashion reafrms the Japan looked to Ireland for textile