Shakkeis Light Women's wear Summer 2009
My name is Gabriel Baradee, and I am delighted to present you my women's wear collection named Shakkei for summer 2009 which is ranged in the createur section:
The inspiration of my collection can be summed up as light and space. How do light and space influence each other? As a basis to start from I choose two contemporary artists - James Turrell, an American artist who makes the phenomenon of light as the centre of his artistic work, and I. M. Pei, one of the world's most famous architects. I.M. Pei designed the spectacular Miho Museum near Kyoto in Japan that was built into the mountains of a nature reserve. Two years ago I had the chance to visit this magnificent building in it´s pitoresque scenery. While watching the building I was so much fascinated that I thought on that strong emotions when it came to choose my diploma theme.
Turrell´s masterpiece is the Roden Crate project. Turrell lightens up an inactive volcano in the desert of Arizona. The combining link between these two masterpieces is that both artists work with light, and that they integrate buildings in a natural, untouched environment. The name for my collection is also inspired by this concept because shakkei is the Japanese expression for a landscape as background for a garden. Not only the interaction between light and space are common in the work of these two artists but also that geometrical forms like triangles and squares always appear in their works.
Very important in my collection is the use of geometrical prints and fabric treatments. They can be compared with a ray of light that drifts on a room and changes the atmosphere of this surrounding. I also used only natural fibres for the garments like cotton, silk, linen, cool wool and paperyarn. The paper used for fashion, symbolizes the link between traditional handicraft , paper fabrics where used in Japan since the Heian period about 1000 years ago (794-1185) and on the other hand paper is a highly contemporary material. The fabric for the silver coat for example consists of 82% paper. This coat as well as the paperskirt are made of hand knitted paperyarn. By creating the pyramid-shaped elements, the garments get a special three dimensional surface where the light is playing with the shadow.
I also tried to deal with the influence of light and space by creating a special type of pocket which I call the imploding pocket that gives the association to Turrells' Roden Crate. You can see this pocket in the design of this dress or the skirt.
Most of the garments in my collection have either white piped seams or white lining to symbolize a light line on the horizon. Of course this also stands for high quality.
My collection is created to fit the urban intellectual woman with a special interest in geometrical forms and prints of a very special quality. (The collection shall combine wearable avant-garde design with contemporary trends).
My designs pursue the policy of companies that combine wearable avant-garde and reduced shapes in fashion with high quality fabrics. Labels like Jil Sander or Issey Miyake could be named in this respect. But also labels that focus on geometrical prints like Allessandro del´qua Jonathan Sander and Dries van Noten would suite my designs. Because of my language knowledges I would also like to work in companies that are located in Asia specially in Japan, as I studied Japanese language.