Wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transcience. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".
Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include assymetry, asperity, roughness or irregularity, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.
Hand to heart, two weeks ago, if you had said 'Wabi Sabi' to me, I would have thought that was a gobblety-gook weird word play on wasabi. That's IGNORAMUS behaviour of the highest order. Firm hand slapping required. I've still not gotten my head round the FULL extent of wabi-sabi but Wikipedia helped me out a great deal as even our Japanese translatorshad a hard time articulating what exactly this aesthetete description, attitude or way of life entailed. It became the catchphrase amongst our group in Tokyo and every kampai (drink) we had was toasted to Team Wabi Sabi, consisting of myself, David and Danny of the blog Igor & Andre, our translators and our wonderful hosts.
Not that we, as a group embodied Wabi Sabi but definitely some of the designers that I saw did. Or at least, I *THINK* they did if I'm reading into the word correctly. If I'm off the mark, any body who is more enlightened can most certainly correct me. Call this the wabi sabi of Tokyo fashion seen through my 'green' and uneducated eyes...
On an unrelated note, I also got called Sugi-San constantly owing to Japanese people unable to pronounce "Susie". I rather like it. I'm thinking of rejecting plain old "Susie" for a while and will only answer to "Sugi-San" if it's ok by you guys.
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Matohu
I spoke a little bit about Matohu when I reviewed the Feel and Think exhibition. The designers Horoyuki Horihata and Makiko Sekuguchi met at Bunka Fashion College and then went on to learn their trade through pattern cutting at Comme des Garcons womenswear and Yohji Yamamoto menswear, respectively. They then came to London to work for Bora Aksu and returned to create matohu with a strong philosophy that skews along the lines of "Creating new styles of clothing based on common threads found in Japanese aesthetics." Like I said before, it's all too easy to label Matohu has kimonos for the 21st century. Actually kimono is the one garment that Horihata and Sekuguchi defiantly avoids. Japanese history and culture informs their work as their first ten collections were based around "The Beauty of Keicho Era", an art era from 1596-1615 and their current series of collections investigates the notion of "The Japanese Eye", a critical essay written by Yangai Muneyoshi in 1957 which questions the supposed 'modernity' of the Western Eye. This is a potent bit of criticism as Asian countries have in the latter half of the 20th century forged ahead to lap up anything that is from the 'West' and equating that to being on the vanguard of culture. Matohu therefore seeks to present their Japanese garments, not as historical replicas but as contemporary and utterly modern clothing.
Japanese culture's appreciation for the seasons and what fruits they bear takes a hold on Matohu's design philosophy and overall aesthetic as evidenced byt he chestnuts loitering about in their flagship store...
Their process for creating their own prints (this is one from their S/S 12 collection) often starts from a simple watercolours that then progresses into a texture that adds richness to a collection without shouting out too loud...
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