テキスタイルへの挑戦！

JFWで、神秘的な作品で観客を魅了したAGURI SAGIMORI。彼女は若干22歳の可憐な少女だ。

まだ汗ばむ陽気の10月末日、恵比寿でAGURI SAGIMORIの展示会が開かれた。コレクションテーマの「文字」を、薄いシルクのオーガンジーに染めた涙で滲んだような表情は、日本の伝統染め技法「有松絞り」の職人さんと長い月日をかけて試行錯誤を繰り返し、「嵐絞り」に辿り着いたもの。また、小説をプリントではなく難しいジャガード織りにして柄のように表現できたのも、大阪の織物屋さんの全面的な協力のおかげだと話してくれた。

そんな苦労の賜を近くで見ると、テキスタイルの細かなディテールの奥深さに感動すら覚える。読書家の彼女が表現したかった繊細な世界は、デザインはもちろん、テキスタイルへの挑戦でもあったのだ。

「私は日本の伝統工芸にこだわっていません。ただ、日本の染め物屋さん、織物屋さんの仕事の細かさや丁寧さは世界一だと思います。そのクオリティを取り入れると自ずとMade in JAPANになるだけ。これからもオリジナルのテキスタイルで作品を発表したい」。最後にこう付け加えてくれた彼女の顔は、世界を見据えた22歳の素敵な女性だった。

At the young age of 22, fashion designer Aguri Sagimori may strike some as merely a dainty young woman, but her mysterious creations continue to wow larger and larger audiences at each successive Japan Fashion Week.

I visited Sagimori’s post-show exhibition back in October. The collection theme for SS ‘09 is “words,” so she printed Japanese characters — that looked to have been blurred by tears — on thin silk organdy. She apparently spent a long time working with an artisan of the arimatsu shibori traditional Japanese dyeing technique, and after a long process of trial and error, was lead to a technique called arashi shibori (storm dyeing). She told me that she wanted to take the contents of an entire novel and print them on fabrics, but thanks to the help of an Osaka textile company, she instead was able to weave the Japanese characters as a pattern into a complicated jacquard.

When you look closely at the result of such hard work, it’s easy to be moved. The detail in the textile is so fine. Sagimori — an avid reader — really wanted to challenge herself by not just putting her world-view into the design but also the textiles.

She told us, “I am not particularly obsessed with Japanese traditional crafts. But, I believe that the intricate work of Japanese dyers and textile designers is the best in the world. It’s just that wanting to employ that level of quality means it has to be ‘Made in Japan.’ In my future shows, I want to keep presenting original textiles.”

This “dainty young woman” surely has her eyes on the world. We look forward to her upcoming JFW show on March 24.

Previously on MEKAS.: Aguri Sagimori SS 2009 Collection - Japan Fashion Week

聞き慣れないこの響き………今とても気になっている。

山形県の鶴岡市は、繭からプリント生地まで地域内で全ての行程が揃う日本で唯一のシルク産地だ。

今まで棄てられていた、蚕が繭を作る際に最初にはき出す糸「きびそ」を「kibiso」として商標登録。オリジナルの鶴岡シルクとして経済産業省・中小企業庁の「地域産業資源活用事業計画」にも認定され、国あげての新しい絹糸に力を注いでいるらしい。

それがなぜ気になるのか………それは2009A/Wのコレクションで、「kibiso」を取り入れた新たなテキスタイルを〈matohu〉が発表するからだ。太くて節のある糸が作り出す独特の質感が、どんな表情へと様変わりするのか今から楽しみである。

日本の伝統とデザイナーが出会い新たな技術が生まれて、観る人を魅了する。自然豊かな山形から生まれた新たな糸は紡績会社に夢を託し、新たなテキスタイルとなってこれから世界に広がっていくことだろう。

I can’t get the word “kibiso” out of my head. The sound “kibiso” has this strange ring to it.

Turns out that the city of Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture is the Japan’s only silk production center where they handle on site the full range of production, from cocoon to printing. Tsuruoka’s industry recently registered the trademark for “kibiso” (in roman letters), which is an old term for the first silk the silkworm produces. They used to throw this silk away, but now are trying to find new uses for it. Kibiso has even been recognized in METI’s “Plan to Revitalize Regional Industry Resources” as an original Tsuruoka silk. The government is apparently pouring a lot of effort into selling kibiso as a brand new Japanese silk thread.

We now hear that the brand matohu is going to use kibiso in a new kind of textile within their upcoming 2009-2010 A/W collection. I am excited to see what kind of emotion they can bring to it, since it’s normally a very knotty, thick thread with a unique texture.

There is something always inspiring about this intersection between Japanese tradition and contemporary fashion designers. Hopefully kibiso will spread from the Yamagata countryside to the rest of the globe.