Apart from its many advantages in terms of freedom, costs and pollution, this mean of transport would make it possible for us to go and spend one day in Tokyo, in order to see the unmissable exhibition of two important international artists, such as the legendary photographer Irving Penn, and Issey Miyake, the most important modern fashion designer.

The exhibition is called “Visual Dialogue“.

The title clearly pays homage to the cooperation of the two artists, that started almost accidentally in 1983, when Vogue America sent Penn to Japan, to portray Miyake’s work. To the fashion designer, Penn’s images were a real discovery.

As Miyake himself admits, explaining the reasons of a relationship that lasted until Penn’s death, in 2009, his pictures were well beyond the mere visual reproduction of Miyake’s clothes. They were able to see these items from a fresh viewpoint and enhance their visionary power. What Miyake saw inspired him to produce new items, establishing a sort of visual dialogue that was challenging for both artists.

Having “discovered” Penn, the Japanese designer decided to ask him, with absolute freedom, to present his new collections.

Their artistic collaboration is well known, both artists have been exhibited by important modern art museums and galleries. Together, they produced many books and catalogues, but also posters, that have always been shown at their exhibitions.

With drawings, prints, feature and animated films, starting from September,16 to April, 8, 2012, the 21_21 Design Sight gallery will celebrate the extraordinary experience of these great artists. Really unmissable!

This seems to be the inspiration behind Rei Kawakubo’s new collection which, as usual, does not simply propose new trends for the current season, but complex creative works. The clothes are not presented for what they are, definite and completed items ready to be worn, but are rather abstract patterns to be repeated, superimposed, reversed and matched.

Skirts, shirts, jackets or waistcoats, every item of clothing is a sort of replicant that cannot be got rid of, that takes form and emerges from anywhere. The edge of a lapel, the stitching of a shoulder, the bottom of a skirt or of a pullover, the back of a dress are all possible places where another element can be put.

Comme des Garçons performs a sort of metalanguage of fashion, where the analysis and description of the process of the mind, which leads to concrete production, are revealed and suggested. Such an operation, that might have potentially obsessive and inflated results, is incredibly able to make up a poetic entirety that is generally harmonious, despite the centrality of asymmetrical lines.

Thanks to masterly tailoring and aesthetic skills, the imbalance of colours and volumes is translated into balanced solutions, whilst the urge to exceed is diluted by more severe pieces, where the creativity of the designer is shown by the fabric processing, for example the cotton that looks like skin.

This collection requires time and attention to detail, because, as we have already mentioned, nothing is as it seems.

Many pieces offer the possibility of being worn in different versions, thus enormously increasing the number of items of clothing.

Gallery