Category — Fashion

Kobe Design University recently held their senior exhibition. Designer Masahiro Minami took a trip over and came back with pictures of some fantastic, high-quality work. So many young, talented designers! Here are some of my favorites.
(all images by Masahiro Minami. Click to enlarge)

This is actually the underlay for a bento box; a solution to decade-old problems like leakage and movement. Love the aesthetic!

A wooden bicycle complete with wooden gears. Only a student could come up with something so outrageous.

Rad oversized rings

I’m not quite sure what this is but I love the display.

This 3D cutout must have taken several endless nights.

Of particular interest to me was this futuristic digital camera. It’s a working model that was co-developed by the University. The way it works is you drape it over your neck and take photographs by creating a frame using your hands. Neat!

Enigmatic designer Naoto Fukasawa’s ±0 brand has just released their latest design, a minimalistic wristwatch that allows you to easily replace the band by sliding it in and out. Love the simplicity! It comes in 4 variations, each costing about 30,000 yen. It goes on sale March 5th.

Related:

• Naoto Fukasawa’s MUJI CD Player
• 5th Collection by ±0

This clever design done for the holiday season somehow slipped under my radar and into one of my wife’s magazines. The Bottle Baguette (3,700 yen), by Japanese haute couture heavyweight Issey Miyake, is a essentially pretty packaging for a wine bottle to be used when attending dinner parties. The packaging then remains on the bottle, which can be transformed into a flower vase.

Related:

• Issey Miyake packaging boxes by Shun Kawakami

I hope everyone in the US had a Happy Thanksgiving and everyone everywhere else had a Happy Thursday! I was saving this post because it seemed festive and I kept thinking how awesome it would be to welcome guests into a home adorned with flower vases like these.

So, last month art director Shun Kawakami embarked on a bold collaborative project, balloon as vase, to create these fascinating vases that you might see if Jeff Koons hosted a Zen tea ceremony.

I actually considered cropping the vases to optimize them for viewing but decided to preserve the originals because they are really so beautiful in their long and narrow orientation, reminiscent of Chinese scrolls. So please click to enlarge!

Photos by Yuu Kawakami

The vases were originally created for “composition of knowledge and feeling,” an exhibition by Shun Kawakami and Takashi Kawada that was shown at JAGDA TOKYO last month. Other collaborators include balloon artist Rie Hosokai aka Daisy Balloon and calligraphy artist Gen Miyamura, both artists in their own right, and whose standalone work I have shown below.

Flame (2008) by calligraphy artist Gen Miyamura, who creates works in highly deconstructed forms of calligraphy. One may even go as far as calling it abstract. In the past Miyamura has done CD jacket designs, movie posters, and even commercial work for Bridgestone and Docomo.

A dress by balloon artist Rie Hosokai, who started balloon art in 2002 and went on to reign supreme in almost every balloon folding exhibition she entered. The icing on the cake was her 2 consecutive wins in Millenium Jam with her haute couture dresses made from balloons.

Related:

• Prints by Shun Kawakami
• Issey Miyake packaging boxes by Shun Kawakami

Earlier this year Toyo Kitchen announced the release of Barcelona Design, a line of eccentric work by flamboyant Spanish designers such as Jaime Hayon and Antoine+Manuel. And despite the hefty price tags the company has been expanding their product mix to include tables, chairs, mirrors and even vases. Although the mix includes no original furniture – rather a reproduction of some of the designers’ more notable pieces – Japanese consumers, for the first time, are able to purchase these one-of-a-kinds from their nearby Toyo Kitchen showroom which, by the way, happens to be the largest kitchen showroom in all of Japan.

Tout va bien by Antoine+Manuel (990,000 yen)

And while it’s hard to imagine any of these pieces in a minimal, subdued Japanese home, Jaime Hayon is not exactly a stranger in Japan. Hayon’s renown in Japan was sealed when he began designing – interiors and shoes – for Camper Shoes, which had developed an almost instantaneous cult following upon their Asian  invasion in 1996.

Multi-leg Cabinet by Jaime Hayon (728,000 – 990,000 yen)

Taking notice of Japan’s affinity for Spain’s brash attention to detail and design aesthetic, the Spanish Embassy in Japan hosted an exhibition in 2007 in conjunction with 100% Design Tokyo. “Spain Playtime – Fresh Air in Spanish Design” was curated by Ana Mir and Emili Padrós from Emiliana Design Studio and featured many of Hayon’s designs. (The show was repeated in 2008 with Jaime Hayon again leading the pack of designers.) “Spain Playtime” met with great acclaim and was featured in several high-profile magazines. At that time Hayon had already begun his  collaborative efforts with Camper but two years later, during the summer of 2009, Christmas arrived early in Tokyo with an Hayon-designed Camper store in Omotesando.

Armchair outdoor by Jaime Hayon (78,000 yen)

Anyway, my final thought on the topic is, designer shoes are one things but I find It very hard to imagine that the people buying camper shoes are the same people buying kitchen tables and cabinets.

Armchair + cover by Jaime Hayon (1,100,000 yen)

Related:

• Barcelona Camper Store by Jaime Hayon
• Spain Playtime – Fresh Air in Spanish Design

I wonder if I could get away with wearing something like this from the Autunm/Winter 09 collection of Engineered Garments? It’s considerably toned down from some of their previous designs.

I forgot to mention this last week, but one tidbit before I head into my usual posting schedule. For those of you who aren’t aware, I just wanted to point out that Fast Retailing is certainly living up to their name. Uniqlo has been spewing new product lines like models spew breakfast. Not long after they wrapped up their Jil Sander line, they recently announced a the release of a collection of shoes that range between 2000 yen and 5000 yen. So what’s next handbags? Perfume? Where does it end?

Related:
Uniqlo announces Jil Sander line

I’m convinced that famed Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki has a twin brother separated at birth, or is leading 2 lives; one as an eccentric and controversial photographer and the other as a daring and stylish Italian gentleman.

via  The Sartorialist

Remember that silly rumor I irresponsibly disseminated about a month and a half ago? Well, my “please don’t make me look like a fool” prayers have been answered. Japanese renowned designer Tokujin Yoshioka just uploaded these images too his website.

Related:

• media skin by Tokujin Yoshioka
• Camper x NENDO
• Camper x Jaime Hayon
• Camper x Ingo Maurer

Ok ok, I just heard a rumor that artsy shoe store Camper has hired superstar designer Tokujin Yoshioka to design their new store in London. Confirmation of this would mean they are on a roll with Japanese designers; first NENDO and next Tokujin Yoshioka.

Related:

• media skin by Tokujin Yoshioka
• Camper x NENDO
• Camper x Jaime Hayon
• Camper x Ingo Maurer