" The Pillow Book"
I found the inspiration of The Pillow Book while I was watching the 1996 film of same name. The main character Nagiko (performed by Vivian Wu), has the beauty of both modern and tradition. In the film she has worn white kimono in the beginning and the end, also modern shirt dress designed by Martin Margiella. However the most intriguing part are the human bodies with the ink calligraphy of different language. It seems to me that a person’s culture and language is like the ink tattooed on skin. In this project my original research is focused on skin and tattoos. The “skin” part made me want to design a collection that is friendly to skin, which is extremely comfortable with a little transparency. This concept matches my research of kimono, an easy, zero waste lingerie style garment. I also chose a series of nature, sustainable fabrics for the designs. In my view, either Chinese or Japanese is highly associated with nature, they are the master of using environmental advantage to create crafts, clothing and decorative fashion. The oriental art is something I want to show in my collection: the calligraphy, the tattoos, the folklores. The hannya is a monster figure I personally like, it is also widely seen on tattoo designs. By choosing this print I want to add some brutal beauty to balance the feminine silhouette in my collection.
