Accessories: objects of creativity.
May 17, 2006
| The important role of accessories in fashion is quite evident, involving both the creative side and the enormous commercial potential, representing a major part of the incomes for many griffes. ITS#ACCESSORIES, supported by YKK, is the brand new project starting this year in ITS creative platform. It is the first international contest worldwide completely focused on accessories, and will culminate with an exhibition showing the 12 selected projects Straight after the pre-selections, we had the chance to have a pleasant chat with one of the jury members, the Japanese fashion designer and architect Kei Kagami, who had a fruitful collaboration with YKK for some of his creations. |
 Let's go a little deeper in his career. Kei initially studied architecture and worked as studio assistant to the pre-eminent figurehead of Twentieth Century Japanese building design, Kenzo Tange. It was during this period he realised his true vocation and promptly enrolled at Tokyo's Bunka College to study tailoring. Building a bridge between the two disciplines, was for him a sort of logical progression. Craving an environment where maverick designers are well regarded and encouraged, he was drawn to the radical London fashion scene. In 1989 arriving on the doorstep of John Galliano's studio in London looking for a job, his talent and determination were instantly recognised and Galliano put him to work without hesitation. Kei remained there as Galliano's studio assistant for three seasons working very closely with his mentor. In 1990 he enrolled at the prestigious Central Saint Martins, then he freelanced on several diffusion lines and then concentrated on crafting exquisite one-offs for his staunchly loyal private client base. Under his skilful eye, YKK fastenings, metal gauze, ball and bicycle chains, winding mechanisms, hooks and other metallic components are incorporated into garments of incredible intricacy and are transformed into objects of beauty. Accessories give the designer a spectrum of expression possibilities, different from the clothes design... "I am not sure what I am telling is objectively right; anyway, I personally think when an object is physically smaller, it could be more creative, luxurious , interesting and even selfish... I guess it is socially allowed to be like that, so accessories are possible to be more expressive as a creation". Peculiar design for accessories tend to attract attention, offering new and unusual perspectives to designers and buyers; as a perfect example Kei told us about his most successful creation "Shoe-bags (a bag made of shoes) which I designed and made in 1999 and a series of clothes (including shoes) which are made of zips in 1998. I smiled many times when I saw something similar a while after I did ". |
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As a gifted designer Kei has a clear vision of the further development the accessories sector should have, connected also to the education and formation side involving design students "Probably many students in general don't know how important accessories are in business and creation; even some accessory students may not know it could bring millions as business and be interesting as creation; I think college should teach students this importance and encourage them more. There is a much of potential to be improved in the area including education" . Again, beside the undoubtable commercial appeal, the key drive (that ITS pursues) is creativity, that goes through different disciplines and objects; on this issue is interesting to know Kei's opinion, as he was formerly an architect who moved through fashion realizing the connections between the two disciplines. "To tell you about it, let me quote 'clothes' instead of 'fashion' I reckon there are quite a lot of similarities in between architecture and clothes in a point of covering human bodies they both are a kind of work to transfer something from the second dimension to the third dimension and require elements such as space, construction, function and so on in a certain point, they are pretty much same , however they are not exactly same because the distance between a body and clothes is different from the distance between a body and architecture. It brings about some differences among them physically and even mentally anyway the both are creation based on function at least." To discover out how the students express themselves in ITS#ACCESSORIES project, there is still to be patient for a couple of months; the night of Thursday 13th July the exhibition, partnered by YKK, will open (contemporarily with the ITS#PHOTO exhibition) the ITS#FIVE event. In the meantime check out ITS#TALENT, meet all the finalists, see the sketches and the photos. |
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