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Internationally renowned for her avant-garde search for architectural proposals that reflect modern living, Zaha Hadid made abstract topographical studies for many of her projects, intervening with fluid, flexible and expressive works that evoke the dynamism of contemporary urban life.

In order to further knowledge of her creative process and the development of her professional projects, here we have made a historic selection of her paintings which expand the field of architectural exploration through abstract exercises in three dimensions. These artistic works propose a new and different world view, questioning the physical constraints of design, and showing the creative underpinnings of her career.

What Were Zaha Hadid's Early Inspirations?

From the beginning of her career Zaha Hadid was influenced by the artist Kazimir Malevich, who led her to use paint as a tool for architectonic exploration. During the 1980s, before Zaha had realized any of her works, she was faced with many fruitful years of theoretical architectural design. In these years she created a precedent for her entire career, with these explorations later consolidated in material form in her works.

I was very fascinated by abstraction and how it really could lead to abstracting plans, moving away from certain dogmas about what architecture is.

Hadid began her paintings with essays in a macro urban scale, exploring proposals for masterplans and forms of connection within and between cities. In her paintings of "The Peak," Hadid proposed a landmark as a respite from the congestion and intensity of Hong Kong, developed on an artificial mountain.

In "The World (89 degrees)" the architect explored the multiple capabilities of new technologies and their impact on architectural design, producing an abstract composition-almost like a satellite view of the world. Using only sharp angles that give dynamism to the view, the plan is crossed by a wide curved horizon which in its movement embodies the constant change in contemporary lifestyles.

Hadid also used this graphic research to rethink existing urban spaces, as in the case of "Grand Buildings Trafalgar Square." In this painting, in addition to inserting a public podium recognizing the tradition of public meetings in the square, Hadid introduced tall buildings with public terraces, whose height would correspond with various landmarks in the city.

Entering into a public competition to design an urban development plan for what was at the time West Berlin, in "Victoria City Aerial" Hadid intervened with an urban context organized around programmatic corridors at different heights that would inject commerce and culture into the area.

The Hafenstrasse development was designed by Hadid to fill intermediate spaces in a zone of traditional vertical housing in Hamburg, Germany. The graphic essays propose a succession of permeable constructions with terraces that connect to the river Elbe.

In 1992 Zaha Hadid was called on to develop a collection of paintings and drawings for "The Great Utopia," an exhibition on Russian Constructivism at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In response, Hadid realized an interpretation of Vladimir Tatlin's Monument to the Third International (1919-1920), in addition to experimenting with recreations of other Russian artists such as Kazimir Malevich.

In her studies for the Vitra Fire Station, Hadid's paintings materialize and freeze the movement of the work, tracing the plan's emerging and inter-connected walls, and giving a sensation of suspense before imminent movement.

From her student days onward, Zaha Hadid used painting as a part of her broad and profound process of architectural creation, demonstrating that we must never stop experimenting. Despite painting throughout her career and realizing multiple exhibitions of her painted work, she never accepted the definition of artist, since all her graphic explorations were part of her ongoing architectural exploration; using the flexibility inherent in art to delve freely into her experimentation as an architect.

For more on Zaha Hadid's relationship to art, check out a documentary in which she discusses the influence of Kazimir Malevich on her work here.

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The Creative Process of Zaha Hadid, As Revealed Through Her Paintings

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Internationally renowned for her avant-garde search for architectural proposals that reflect modern living, Zaha Hadid made abstract topographical studies for many of her projects, intervening with fluid, flexible and expressive works that evoke the dynamism of contemporary urban life.

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Zaha Hadid in 7 Minutes: What Makes Her Architecture So Extraordinary?

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When speaking on the growing beast that is the fashion industry, today you need to have it all to become a huge success; new and bold ideas, a marketing strategy to fuel the hunger of the youth, a spark of luck, and a budget which allows you to place yourself in front of the right people. Unfortunately, with today's trend-thirsty culture, it's usually not about the next best thing, but the next big thing. Although before this, there was a time where new, conceptual, and imaginative ideas were at the forefront of this bull ride to the top. Where a designer that would push the boundaries and show others how it could be done was awarded the recognition they deserved. There is no better example of this than the legendary and historical individual that calls himself Issey Miyake.

Issey Miyake, originally named Miyake Kazumaru, is a Japanese fashion designer who, amongst a few others, lead the contemporary and experimental movement of the avant-garde Japanese style that is so popular today. Born on April 22, 1938, in Hiroshima, Japan, Miyake was just 7 years old when he survived the Hiroshima bombing; unfortunately, his mother didn't share the same fate as he would. This would be his very first wave of inspiration and desire to create. Seeing two bridges in the epicenter of the attack, now named Create and Go, these bridges would allow Miyake to know that design can invoke emotion: hope, freedom, and creation in destruction.

Issey Miyake is now world-renowned and a household name, sharing the same weight behind his status among some of the greatest designers in the world. He pushed the boundaries and challenged convention, creating an east meets west story through his garments which would propel him to be a mastermind of the craft. Miyake's empire now includes over 300 stores worldwide, 8 clothing lines, as well as a line of fragrances for both men and women. A true kingpin of evolution, both from a structural and aesthetical point of view, it would not be a leap to assume that Issey Miyake is one of the most influential and successful designers of our time.

Originally studying graphic design at the Tama Art University in Tokyo, he would graduate in 1965 before moving to Paris, just three months before Kenzo Takada [the first Japanese designer to be successful in Paris]. Kenzo and Miyake actually knew each other in Japan, and both studied together at a tailoring and dressmaking school, l'Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la couture. Already designing clothing at this point, Miyake would go on to start his career as an apprentice for French couturier Guy Laroche, and two years later he apprenticed at Givenchy before moving to New York in 1969. It's hard to believe that Miyake could of one day been making more suave and sophisticated women's dresses, instead of his now futuristic and experimental industrial creations [including a chair in which doubled as a piece of clothing]. Alas, Miyake had experienced the French riots during his time in Paris which pushed him away from his want to create drapes for ladies who powder their noses and drink fine wine at lunch and instead pushed him to want to create more universally worn pieces. Because of this, it was time to move on to the big apple.

His time in New York was only a short snippet in his career though, as whilst working for a ready-to-wear brand in New York he started to become more interesting in the evolution and development that was happening back in Japan. Just a year later Miyake would venture back to Japan and start to establish himself as a giant, or should we say kaiju, in the fashion industry. He then set up his first studio, the Miyake Design Studio. Just a year later, Miyake would showcase his first collection in New York, mainly t-shirts consisting of Japanese traditional Tattoo designs. 3 years later, Miyake would quickly be recognized as a maestro of the craft. In 1973 he would be invited to Paris with multiple other young and upcoming designers and would move on to set up a boutique there and continue to show his work from that point on in Paris.

MASTER OF MASTERS

As of the 1980s, Issey Miyake was already a well-established and congratulated figure in fashion, and this would only be further enforced with the uprising of two other world-renowned designers that followed in Miyake's footsteps. Miyake laid the foundations for the avant-garde Japanese style which we all know and love [and most likely can't afford], but this was further enhanced with Rei Kawakubo, working under the label Comme des Garçons, and Yohji Yamamoto. These two would go on to showcase their work in Paris alongside Miyake in 1981. Although it was never their intention, these 3, with Miyake being the head of the Cerberus of Fashion, would lead a trend of future Japanese avant-garde stylists, creatives, and artists.

Kawakubo said in an interview with Olivier Séguret in Madame Air France, "We certainly have no desire to create a fashion threesome, but each of us has a strong urge to design new, individual clothes which are recognizably ours"

Miyake challenged the convention of western clothing for females at the time. The western trend usually being tight, exposed and hugging of a women's figure, Miyake instead focuses on simplicity, minimalism, and flowing forms. It was a conscious decision to make it almost go the opposite direction to the westernized ideologies, and Miyake even mentions that this approach was one of his greatest advantages.

"I realized that my very disadvantage, lack of western heritage, would also be my advantage. I was free of Western tradition or convention ... The lack of western tradition was the very thing I needed to create contemporary and universal fashion. "

To go against the western methodologies and ideologies was Miyake's way of breaking the mould, and not only standing out but standing up against normalities and expectancies. He was not focused on creating traditional clothing, yet instead focuses on creating universal clothing which resonated with both genders and cultures.

BEAUTY IN DESIGN

Throughout his career, as he would continue to hone in on his niche, Miyake's main concept and muse have never truly differed all too much. He has always been interested and inquisitive about the way clothing and fabrics move and flow with the body. He broke the convention of the usual East meets West approach and focused heavily on how the fabric had a relationship with our bodies, and how he could further relish and embody the two together to create something truly unique and beautiful.

Already being congratulated as an avant-garde experimentalist, it is not just the look of the garments that Miyake manages to pull off so well. His approach and take on form, one that blends both art and function, blurs the lines of contemporary artistry together with an almost ominous but sexy tone. Using bizarre shapes and structures to create unique and outlandish shapes, yet still, have a subtle and understated feel to them.

A signature approach of his that would challenge one's perception of fashion was 'A-POC', or 'A Piece of Cloth" this idea was supplied in a single tube of fabric, which was made from a single thread with the aid of an industrial knitting or weaving machine programmed by a computer. This concept originated as early as 1976 and has been the foundation of Miyake's work as It continued to evolve and innovate in its different ways respectively. This would come to its final form between the time of 1997 and 2001, where Miyake worked and collaborated alongside Dai Fujiwara showcasing a radical attempt to do away with cutting and sewing. Production was based on feeding thread into a computer-programmed machine that would then generate a complete garment. The garment would then have perforations and places to cut to create an almost one size fits all piece. Sustainability and waste are always at the forefront of Miyake's creations, and this A-POC method was to ensure that we could get the most out of our resources without wastage.

Issey Miyake was also inspired and obsessed with the use of different types of fabrics and materials. Alongside his A-POC method, Miyake would further explore different catalysts for his fusion of modernism and experimentalism with things such as plastic, paper, and wire. He called his creations from this period "Body Works." The American art magazine Artforum featured a Rattan- vine Body created by Miyake on its February 1982 cover-the first time clothing had been featured on the cover of an art magazine.

From early days Miyake knew that he wanted to create 'things' rather than fashion. This has been an ethos that he carried through his entire career, and it shows from his extensive research into different textile and technological methods used in his garments. Instead of collaborating with a high-selling streetwear designer that all the cool kids are buying into, instead, he focused on working with different craftsmen to develop and sharpen his capabilities with textiles.

"I didn't know how to create work at a higher level than what I was seeing. After coming back to Japan, I collaborated with textile designers, and people who were capable of cutting clothes and using great technology. I am not the kind of person who can do everything. When we are working in this kind of environment and industry we need to accept the knowledge of others. Today, some of my team have been working with me for more than 40 or 50 years."

They say to hire people that are better at your job than you are in order to succeed, and Issey Miyake does not shy away from that statement. By collaborating with masters of textiles and fabrics, he then has the flexibility and time to work alongside them to further develop his brand to what it is today. The maestro has always been extremely interested in synthetics and recyclable products, making long-lasting garments that have a price point that can warrant the lifespan of the product. Many of his work is all machine washable, which is not the usual case with many high-end fashion labels that use luxurious materials for their garments.

Miyake has always been a fan and a pioneer of textiles used in modern fashion today, and this has trickled down to the mass market. Fun fact, Miyake once told the creative director of Uniqlo that he was a fan of the brand's thermal underwear, and to his surprise, the material used was in fact a textile Miyake himself had helped engineer 30 years before.

Leading on from textiles, this brings Miyake's journey up to arguably his most successful and recognisable collection, Pleats Please. Now the protagonist of Miyake's career, Pleats Please is the culmination of years of experimentation with textiles, technology, art, and form. An effortlessly beautiful statement of how fabric can function with the shape of the body, this range uses a single piece of high quality, 100% polyester, permanently pleated fabric which is folded via a specific process. Working alongside his textile director, Makiko Minagawa, together with the textile mills they brought to the market still to this day one of the most recognisable lines of clothing from a designer.

Traditionally, pleats are permanently pressed before a garment is cut, but although a lover of traditions and heritage, Miyake again challenges this to create a new method entirely. They would assemble a garment two-and-a-half to three times its proper size, then would fold, iron, and oversee the material so that the straight lines remained in place. The garment would then be placed in a press between two sheets of paper, from which it emerged with permanent pleats. The result was a garment that almost resembles origami in its nature. Effortlessly maintaining shape regardless of how it flowed with the body.

A stylish, sexy, sophisticated, and outlandish line that allowed you to be in the office or a wedding in the day and hit the town and clubs at night without the need to change. This blend of contemporary and avant-garde styling, made to look so effortless that anyone could pull it off made it so that Miyake had, in many people's eyes, accomplished his goal; he had created a universal loving line of clothing which could be worn by everyone, looked good on everyone, and regardless of your style could be worn with pride. Years of experimenting, tweaking, crafting, and innovating had led him to his Pleats Please range, and still to this day people have tried to mimic this method, but no one has come to close to the mastery of it as Issey Miyake has.

A Lifetime Showcase of Craftmanship

Not only did the master of pleats make waves within the fashion industry, but he also has a lifetime supply of awards and recognitions from many art institutions. In 2005 the Japan Arts Association awarded Miyake a Praemium Imperiale for outstanding achievement in the arts. Also, recognised mainly for his work on 'A-POC' and Pleats Please, in 2006 he became the first fashion designer to receive the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for lifetime achievement, awarded by the Inamori Foundation in Japan.

Miyake has over 20 awards to his name throughout his life, including awards that for the first time were awarded to a fashion designer such as his first-ever award, the Mainichi Design Award, Japan. He has been awarded the best collection from a foreign Designer in Paris [1985], The 1st Hiroshima Art Prize by the city of Hiroshima [1990], selected as a Person of Cultural Merit from Japan [1998], awarded "Designs of the Year Fashion Award 2012" by Design Museum, London [2012], and the list goes on and on.

Issey Miyake has helped to blend what today seems very obvious, art and fashion. He has opened the doors to other avant-garde designers to blur the lines of wearable art and truly has captured the essence of what many designers struggle to do today. Fashion is about showing emotion, showing individuality, and showing character through a greater means than just words. Miyake interprets this perfectly with artistry and craftsmanship.

Game Recognises Game

They say that greatness rubs off on one another, and this may be true of Steve Jobs and Issey Miyake. Everyone who knows much about Steve Jobs knows the joke behind his 'uniform' consisting of a black turtleneck, blue jeans, and some 'Dad' shoes. But did you know these turtlenecks were actually crafted by Issey Miyake?

At the time it was said that Jobs was inspired by previous Sony Chairman Akio Morita, who provided his employees with uniforms made by Miyake. Those uniforms helped create a bond among employees, and Jobs wanted that for Apple. Jobs would commission Miyake to make a vest for Apple employees, although it didn't turn out as they hoped. Instead, Jobs created a uniform for himself, wanting to spend less time thinking about what he needed to wear every day. He wanted getting ready in the morning to be second nature, so he could spend more time thinking of his brilliant ideas. He asked Miyake for black turtlenecks for his wardrobe, and Miyake provided him with 100 black turtlenecks. "I have enough to last for the rest of my life." Stated Jobs. Next time you're reading one of the new Sabukaru posts on your flashy iPhone, thank Miyake for his contribution to the tech-giants success.

Look good, smell better

Miyake also further enhances his brand through the sense of smell. Somehow again adding in a unique blend of elegance but innovation which instead of seeing with your eyes, you smell with your nose.

Now a worldwide success, the Issey Miyake range of fragrances was a breath of fresh air [pun intended] in the world of perfumes that at the time filled with room rockers. A sweet, delicate, refreshing scent that fizzled on the nose but didn't overpower your senses came to surprise the market and saw it sore in popularity as a fan favourite amongst women who preferred a more understated and sophisticated approach to smell.

Miyake states that his fragrances are not perfumes, yet instead are scents. Focused on the idea of water, his scents are made to elegantly dance around the room rather than fill and force their way through them. Very similar to his clothing, they are subtle, understated, yet uncompromisingly beautiful.

"I like the idea of scents but not that of a fragrance,' Issey Miyake has mentioned. 'I do not possess the culture of fragrance, but rather the culture of scents."

Issey Miyake and Irving Penn

Although the list of collaborators though Miyake's life is extensive, one that sings out to us is the work with photographer Irvin Penn. A one-off project for Miyake's collection for Vogue in 1983 quickly expanded into a 13 year-long relationship between the two creatives which would blossom into an archival feature of mass proportion. Penn captured Miyake's collection in such a way that it was said to have allowed Miyake to see his own collection with fresh eyes; like he was seeing the same thing, but for the first time again. Miyake would then commission him to capture his next collection, and the next, and the next.

"I was looking for the one person who could look at my clothing, hear my voice, and answer me back through his own creation. I searched long for such a person and found in Penn-san"

The work created resulted in over 250 photographs over the course of 13 years, 7 books, and was shown off in an exhibition at Tokyo museum 21_21 Design Sight, entitled Irving Penn and Issey Miyake: Visual Dialogue. What made the two's connection work so well was disconnection. This may seem strange, but it was this notion that made the two creatives work best with each other. Penn never once visited Miyakes fashion shows, and Miyake never once ever visited one of Penn's photography sessions. It was this disconnection and surprise that allowed the two to bounce off each other. They gained inspiration from one another due to the unknown and lack of need to direct one another's vision.

Having passed the reigns and retiring from the Paris fashion scene in 1999 to Naoki Takizawa, who had been designing Miyake's Plantation Line since 1983 and Issey Miyake Men since 1993, in 2004 Miyake created the Miyake Issey Foundation. An educational foundation to aid in the electing of next-generation creatives and thinking. A forward-thinking driven society which is inspired by Miyake's approach to both fashion, and life in general. To challenge, to tweak, to experiment, and to be inspired by the entire process.

The Issey Miyake Foundation is bent on giving back after all the knowledge gathered over the past 45 years of Miyake's life. To create new creative projects for the public, showcasing and nurturing talent. As well as this showcase, Issey Miyake also created an art Museum under the alias 21_21 Design Sight. A place that can explore new creative ideas of design at a time where there was a severe lack of places for this in Japan.

SPECIAL PLACE IN HISTORY

Curiosity and happiness are at the core of my work. Design is never static but it is only possible after constant exchanges of ideas, aesthetics, and sensibilities. Clothes are of no interest except insofar as they provoke sentiments and reactions in those who wear them. I create, not to express my ego or my personality, but rather to try and bring answers to those who are asking themselves questions about our era and how we should live in it.'

A quote from the master himself, and one that resonates with any creative on so many levels. There is something very humble and inspiring about someone who creates simply just to create. Someone who is not okay with accepting normality, but instead wants to create a new one entirely through the medium of something special. Issey Miyake is a man who does not fuel his ego through success, but instead does what he does out of enjoyment of changing the world into a more conceptual, experimental, and interesting place. His work is an echo of his morals, ethos, and passion.

We may never see a designer quite like Issey Miyake again in our lifetime. Someone who meticulously explores something so deep that it folds out into something completely new, much like his pleats he crafted ever so perfectly during his career. Someone who has inspired generations of forward-thinkers to stop, listen, learn, and craft, instead of joining the rocket ride to the moon of success through cheap labor, intrusive sales, and marketing tactics, and a lack of love for what you are doing. And for that, we would like to thank Miyake for making his mark on design.

Text By: Joe Goodwin is a brand consultant living in the UK, but explores subcultures through the medium of writing. With a particular interest in fashion and anime/manga, Joe hopes to set off to Tokyo as soon as he can to soak up the bright lights and culture.

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ISSEY MIYAKE - A Lifelong Journey Of Mastery - sabukaru

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When speaking on the growing beast that is the fashion industry, today you need to have it all to become a huge success; new and bold ideas, a marketing strategy to fuel the hunger of the youth, a spark of luck, and a budget which allows you to place yourself in front of the right people.

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Welcome to the ISSEY MIYAKE INC. official website and discover Brand Concepts, News, Looks, Items, Collections, Store Locator, Corporate Information and other official information.

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FROM JAPANthe work of issey miyake Share with friends

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A-POC (A Piece of Clothing) by Issey Miyake

It's fashion week again and almost everyone is looking for what will be the next big trend for next year and with all the talks about eco-friendly clothes and finding individualism in a global market. I decided it's right time to blog about Issey Miyake's A-POC (a piece of clothing) design concept.

A-POC, a unique idea of Miyake in manufacturing clothes is now goes beyond the confines of fashion. It's an industrial weaving machine programmed by a computer that creates continuous tubes of fabric within which lie both shape and pattern. The customers can cut exactly to the length they want. The concept is a revolutionary way of making clothes, accessories or even lately furniture. A-POC process reduces any leftover fabric that would have been eventually garbage that filling up our landfills. Also it lets the costumer to have a role in the final design of the final outcome.

Now retired from fashion Miyake is now concentrating on further developing the A-POC technology with the help of textile expert Dai Fujiwara. Together they encourage others to find new applications for A-POC. Since any material that can be turned into a fiber can be use in A-POC process the possibilities for this technology is endless. Their team already developed a series of colourful chairs and sofas and a resin-linen blend that found to be as strong as steel.

(photo from the book A-Poc Making: Issey Miyake and Dai Fujiwara by Issey Miyake).

Miyake now offer a product called "Gemini"to consumers, co-designed by the London-based furniture maker/architect Ron Arad. Gemini is a streamlined, body-cushioning seat pillow, made of A-POC fabric, which morphs into an elegant, body-hugging jacket.

Miyake and Arad also teamed up to produced the "Ripple Chair"

Fujiwara Dai and Miyake Issey's A-POC Queen Textile. 1997. Cotton, nylon, and polyurethane, Dimensions variable. Manufactured by Issey Miyake, Inc., Tokyo, Japan. Gift of Miyake Design Studio. Composite image by Pascal Roulin

Here's A-POC's 'Baguette' collection.

Started in Fall/Winter 2007 collection, A-POC technology was implemented as a design solution for three Issey Miyake brands which will be called A-POC INSIDE. Here's Issey Miyake"s Spring/Summer 2008

Here's the video of the show.

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A-POC (A Piece of Clothing) by Issey Miyake

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A-POC (A Piece of Clothing) by Issey Miyake It's fashion week again and almost everyone is looking for what will be the next big trend for next year and with all the talks about eco-friendly clothes and finding individualism in a global market.

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An Issey Miyake fragrance is like an interlude, a suspended moment in time to find the emotion, the harmony and the pleasure of the senses.

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Lostgens' Contemporary art space * Art and Social Reform is Inseparable

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Since its inception in 2006, the Artist-In-Residence Program at Lostgens' has engaged over 30 local and international artists. It has since built a strong presence and reputation in the arts residency fields. Lostgens' is also one of the Independent arts spaces in Malaysia to offer art residency programs for contemporary arts.

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The Alphabet Press (TAP) - Purveyor of traditional craftsmanship

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We understand the production cost for making a letterpress print is steep because it happens for good reasons. Due to the nature of the craft, significant amounts of time and effort are essential in delivering the best quality print. We individually price each bespoke order based on the artwork size, number of colours, and the labour by our artisans.

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But why "emptiness" now?

Is Hara talking about a new potential that could be created by marrying traditional wisdom with modern simple/minimal design? Actually, he has a much larger vision.

He believes that locally unique aesthetics such as "emptiness" can be critical economic resources to elevate our future beyond today's materialistic society created by the globalized economy. He reminds us that "aesthetics" - our own ability to find beauty, excellence and happiness through our own senses and behaviors - has always been the third "hidden" button, after natural resources and resources, that we push to advance technology and quality of life, especially in Japan. We just forgot the importance of aesthetics as we busied ourselves in the game of economic efficiency. Now it is time to shift our focus towards aesthetics, suggests Hara, now that the ROI of efficiency-driven economic system is rapidly diminishing and our world is starting to suffer from its side effects such as resource constraints and climate change.

Hara believes that by letting our world compete based on aesthetics, not the GDP, we could re-define affluence and happiness.

But how does that work? We can start by reviewing the origin of the "emptiness" aesthetics.

Faced by harsh reality, Hara believes that the people of Kyoto chose not to re-create the traditional extravagant culture. Instead they tried to pursue new opportunities at the other extreme: zero, or nothing. They discovered a new approach to feel sensuous/mental fulfillment in the process of eliminating and letting go of everything they had acquired.

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Kenya Hara and the aesthetics of "emptiness" -

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Kenya Hara is a Japanese graphic designer who helped cement the philosophy of Japanese brand MUJI by leveraging the concept of "emptiness." Even though these concepts might appear similar, "emptiness" in Japanese aesthetics is different from Western "simplicity," observes Hara. Ultimately it has to do with how we perceive our relationship with nature.

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15 minutes with Kenya Hara

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Words of wisdom from Muji's celebrated art director.

"When we say that 'the scales fall from the eyes,' we mean that we are freed from our preconceptions and are able to feel anew the reality of this world," Kenya Hara writes in the foreword to his book Ex-formation (Lars Müller Publishers), a compilation of research projects completed by students taking his course at Japan's Musashino Art University between 2003 to 2014. The volume attempts to highlight how little we don't know (and in turn, reveal how to gain an individual kind of understanding), a concept the Japanese designer uses in his work as an educator, writer, curator, and maker. Currently the art director at Muji-where he helps shape the brand's image, philosophy, and graphic design work as it expands worldwide-Hara was in New York last week to give a lecture, titled "Muji Reborn," on the occasion of Muji's 10th anniversary in the U.S. We sat down with Hara, whose compact build and husky voice recalls that of a very wise teddy bear, before his talk to discuss why he took a job at the Japanese retailer, the concept of emptiness, and the power of design.
Your work underscores the design of objects as well as experiences. Growing up, did you aspire to do something in the arts?
When I was a boy, I lived on the western side of Japan. I did Japanese sword martial arts, and painting, all through high school, but I never imagined I'd get into the field of art-I was interested in creating a TV program. When I was in my second year of high school, the art teacher asked me about going to university. That suggestion stimulated my interest in getting into the field of art.

I entered the department of Science of Design at Japan's Musashino Art University. In that department, there was a fantastic professor, Shutaro Mukai, who had studied at the Ulm School of Design in Germany. I was very impressed by him. I spent six years in the department of Science of Design, and graduated with a master's degree there. After that, I still didn't think I would become a designer. Design is a very important concept, but the term "designer" sounded too commercial for me.

For one year after graduating, I was the assistant to Eiko Ishioka, a famous Japanese artist and costume designer. Her work is quite different from normal commercial design. I was very impressed with her, and that experience changed my mind [about design]. She challenged me to think about the type of approach that creates fantastic work.

After that you entered the Nippon Design Center, a firm founded in 1959 with the aim of improving the quality of advertising design in Japan. You're now its president, and in 2002, became the art director at Muji. What spurred you to take on that role?
I'm not so good at creating stimulating advertising, actually. My thinking isn't centered around giving something a commercial aspect. Instead, I am always asking, "What kind of circumstance should humanity create?" That is my focus. In 2002, Ikko Tanaka, the famous art director who helped found the whole concept of Muji, called me. He wanted to pass the baton to me. I was very surprised. Why? He is a very great famous designer, and had a fantastic assistant already. Why wouldn't he pass the baton to him?

I was interested in the direction and vision of Muji. At the time, it had already succeeded in Japan and had more than 500 stores there. Every consumer in the country respected the brand. But when I thought about the global Muji, how I might help it spread worldwide, I thought perhaps that's where I could make a mark.

[At my lecture] tonight, I am going to talk about the concept of "emptiness." Emptiness is a concept I use days to explain the basic philosophy of Muji. Muji's products look very minimal. Minimalism is very similar to the Western concept of simplicity. But there a difference between simplicity and emptiness.
Where does the concept of "emptiness" come from?
The origin of Japanese design was founded in the fifteenth century-long before Modernism, as a movement, began. If you think about the country of Japan and tilt it ninety degrees, the Japanese archipelago is at the base. It acts like the bottom funnel of a pinball machine, with many balls falling into it from the top. And Japan collects so many different cultural nuggets from all over the world-not only China but also India and Russia.

The world's culture did not begin with simplicity, though. It began with flamboyant decorations and color. In China, India, Russia, Eurasia, Europe, kings saw this as a way to show great power. So everything was highly decorated.

During the middle of the fifteenth century, a big civil war consumed Kyoto, lasting more than ten years. Kyoto was destroyed, and Japanese culture was reset at that time. So the flamboyance popular before [the war] was largely obliterated. Today's Japanese architecture, gardens, and interior design were born out of that time. The guiding philosophy was emptiness.

An empty space is a kind of creative receptacle that carried the potential to create a very fantastic image. Japanese Zen gardens are very empty. The only things there are white sand and small stones. But this empty space [sparks] imagination in the people who visit; they have a conversation with themselves within the empty space. [To foster imagination-] that is most important point of emptiness. Muji's concept is based on this philosophy.

What are the challenges of explaining that concept to other cultures?
Culture is only dependent on its locality. If we expand our local culture to a global context, then the global culture becomes more rich. The Japanese concept of emptiness is very easily understood by people all over the world. When they have more chances to visually experience emptiness, they can use that philosophy in all areas of their lives.
What advice do you have for aspiring designers?
Design is not [only] a special technique to make forms and shapes and images. It also awakens people. That's a very important power of design.

Every part of our existence is already designed-the shape of toilet paper, for example. The human being likes square [things] . The lion and the hippopotamus, perhaps, do not like square [things]. So why does the human? He creates a square building, square rooms, square furniture, square laptop, square stamps. Why is the world is designed so square? I think gravity and the position of the two eyes, which are parallel with our two hands, is the reason. The world has been and continues to be designed with a square. Once we're aware of that, the world begins to look strange. And from that very small point, the mind starts to change-it awakens.

(Opening Photo: Yoshiaki Tsutsui.)

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15 Minutes with Kenya Hara, Art Director of Muji

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Words of wisdom from Muji's celebrated art director. "When we say that 'the scales fall from the eyes,' we mean that we are freed from our preconceptions and are able to feel anew the reality of this world," Kenya Hara writes in the foreword to his book Ex-formation (Lars Müller Publishers), a compilation of research projects completed by students taking his course at Japan's Musashino Art University between 2003 to 2014.

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The Books of Kenya Hara

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Architecture for Dogs

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Architecture for Dogs is an earnest architectural project for a new happiness for dogs and humans alike, planned by world-famous architects and designers. By downloading blueprints and looking at photos of prototypes and instructional videos, anyone can build Architecture for Dogs, then take a photo…

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MUJI is more than simply a line of products. It is a way of thinking. "To be confident in a simplicity that feels in no way inferior to splendor." "The simplicity that comes from stripping away frills can surpass splendor." These concepts were advocated by graphic designer Ikko Tanaka, who was the first art director of MUJI. He then passed the torch to me. We don't try to communicate this way of thinking by using a lot of explanation in words. Instead, we aim to communicate in a way that ensures people naturally understand these ideas when they encounter MUJI. Today, I would like to talk about several themes I have used to communicate these MUJI ideas.

The first is the idea of "emptiness." The idea of simplicity comes from Western contemporary design and takes a rationalistic form. But in traditional Japanese design, simplicity has a slightly different character. It is the simple form that gives users the freedom to develop their own way of handling an object. It is this depth that I call emptiness. MUJI essentially embodies this emptiness. For example, the MUJI mattress with legs can also be used as a sofa. You could also put several together to create an elevated floor. Giving users the freedom to use our products however they wish is what I mean by emptiness. We feel this is not something to be explained in words. Our visuals are designed to wake people to this emptiness so that users feel it the moment they seem them.

The corporate advertising campaign created in 2003 shows only images of the earth and human beings photographed on the horizon. Rather than convey a particular message, we focused on the presence of MUJI. This visual allows users to freely imagine what they feel MUJI to be. Creating these ads gave me a great deal of insight into how I myself think about MUJI. While brands around the world strive to create ads that make people want that product, MUJI sends out a message of emptiness. This is a stance that began with the horizon ad.

In this ad, we have a contemporary MUJI tea bowl placed in the Dojinsai room at Ginkaku-ji Temple. Built in the 16th century, this is said to be the first room in what is now known as the traditional Japanese style. This is an image that conveys that MUJI today embodies traditional Japanese culture, which values a simple, clean, empty, vacant aesthetic. The Japanese culture that admires clean lines and simplicity dates much further back than Western modernism, and it was in making this ad that I realized that MUJI's roots come from this Japanese culture. We live in a global age, but it is very important to realize that there is a value deep in one's own culture that speaks to the entire world. Being aware of this has, I believe, helped me develop a unique tone and manner for MUJI photos and expression. This isn't simply a matter of taking a straight-on shot of a product. We let users and their particular lifestyle determine how they will use a product. With our products, you should be aware of this unique MUJI philosophy.

The second theme is "natural." This advertising campaign is from 2008. The theme was hands. Hands at work... cooking, or spinning wool.

In my rough sketches for the ad, I focused on the incredible beauty of bare, unadorned hands at work. The copy, yasashiku shiyou, has many meanings. It can mean either being kind to someone or simplifying things. This copy is also ambiguous, and the copy can be interpreted in a number of ways.

The copy for this next corporate advertising campaign is "What happens naturally." This is a bed and chair by product designer Naoto Fukasawa. Thinking about the meaning of a backrest, the back of a chair and a headboard would naturally take the same angle. In creating products, MUJI works toward a certain purpose and eliminates everything that is extraneous. This leads us inevitably to a natural design.

This Mold Sofa was designed for MUJI by designer Jasper Morrison. It has molded urethane cushioning inside. The ad shows a sofa unlike the conventional sofa, made using an extremely simple method. When we think of what MUJI is, our ads also need to be simple like this. That is part of our message.This was another Naoto Fukasawa idea, adopting the design of train station clocks just as they are.Masahiro Mori designed a Japanese and Western tableware series for MUJI.When you focus in like this on MUJI products, a certain tone naturally emerges. This is where we begin to create the mood for the ad or photo. MUJI stays away from trends when designing its clothing and styling its graphics and communications. The latest fads quickly become outdated. So it is vital to keep our designs just far enough away from trends that it's not clear when they were created.

The 2014 ad image was taken on location in Iceland. This land was pushed up from the bottom of the ocean due to movement in the earth's crust. It is extremely wild, but also very beautiful. I wanted to photograph women wearing MUJI clothes in a location like this. We searched for not one model, but for a family of three generations of women-a mother, daughters and granddaughters. While we were shooting, they began humming, and the scene was so perfect that we just started filming. We didn't produce this ad at all. The women just reacted to what they felt from MUJI, and I was moved by what happened naturally. When I saw what was happening, I was moved.

The third theme is "home." The year after we photographed the horizon ad, I felt that I wanted to take pictures of homes. The 2004 ads were shot in Morocco and Cameroon. At the time, I was thinking about the fact that MUJI is a brand that offers a philosophy about how to live, a certain kind of lifestyle. And my impulse was to capture this by photographing homes at the "end of the earth." When Ikko Tanaka started to work as an art director for MUJI, the company had only about 40 items. By the time we started making these ads, we had about 5,000 items. With this many products, I thought that MUJI could represent a way of living. The idea of a MUJI "home" isn't simply to fill your space with MUJI items. I felt that MUJI could help people who are good at breaking down ready-made ideas for what makes a home and rebuilding in their own way. When they're brought together, I believe MUJI products serve as an "operating system," or a concept or aesthetic, to make a certain lifestyle work. When you look at a MUJI store the size of the flagship stores in Yurakucho or Shanghai, I think we have the power not just to market individual products, but to offer a vision of an overall lifestyle. I believe that by helping more and more people gain the skills to redesign a house to fit their own lifestyle, rather than simply buy a ready-built structure, we are cultivating customers for MUJI, as well.

This is an ad from ten years ago or so. At that time in Japan, homeowners were not only buying newly built houses but also renovating older homes. The ad copy says "Let's Talk Houses" and is accompanied by visuals of a house with everything- the floor, walls, ceiling - removed. This is when we began inviting customers to talk with MUJI about homes. Now MUJI literally offers houses among its products. We are starting a number of projects related to homes, such as our Infill 0 service, which means starting over from scratch in an existing house, and working with public corporations to renovate large public apartment buildings that are rented by the public. Before this, Japanese homeowners had always purchased ready-built, which is why everyone lived in the same type of house. But really you can live any in whatever type of house you want to. MUJI can help our customers to do this.

I have imagined how great it would be if we had MUJI stores where you could get absolutely everything you might need for your home-trees and plants, lights, solar systems, bathtubs, and beds. The House Vision project is one that I came up with while doing work for MUJI. With this project, MUJI and other leading Japanese firms collaborate with architects to present ways of living that we've never seen before. Using new technology and creativity, we visualized a great many new designs that could emerge from the trend in uniform houses we've seen in Japan.

It seems that for young people, as well as people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, houses will be a very big market. There is also potential for reimagining traditional Japanese homes in a futuristic way. The House of Furniture design is a collaboration between architect Shigeru Ban and MUJI for House Vision. The support structure for the ceiling is made entirely from furniture. No walls or pillars... only furniture holds the ceiling up. This eliminates all dead space, which is the concept behind the design. MUJI works with modules sized to all fit together to form larger units. Combining the House of Furniture and MUJI module concepts, we created an extremely simple house with no dead space. This design is meant to be conceptual, to demonstrate one of the many possibilities you get with MUJI products and concepts.

This slide shows public apartments built 30 or more years ago that MUJI helped renovate to illustrate how old apartments can be recycled. The idea is not to have everything in one's home be from MUJI. Rather, it is about MUJI helping customers actively create lifestyles for themselves. Life is much more fun when you have the skills to envision the ideal home for your lifestyle. And if you possess these skills, you will be even more excited to see all the products in a MUJI store.

The fourth theme is "water." There is a Chinese saying that water conforms to both the circle and the square. Water can take the shape of whatever space it is in. As MUJI has expanded with stores around the world, we took on the message one year that MUJI wants to be "Like Water." We weren't talking about customers diving into and immersing themselves in MUJI. Wanting to be like water is wanting to be part of the culture, to become an indispensable part of it.

These are photos of cities reflected in a cup of water where the silhouette of the entire skyline is contained within the water. We took this glass to cities where MUJI has stores and photographed it all around the world. These large photos hanging in MUJI stores subtly convey the message that MUJI wants to be like water.

This corporate ad illustrates the fact that MUJI is all around the world. MUJI shopping bags are shown in different locations around the world to point out MUJI's presence worldwide.

With this Café&Meal MUJI ad, we went into the fields for this black-and-white shot of parsley just picked from the field. Even without much copy, the large images hung in the store create a certain feeling that customers pick up on. The idea was to create an energetic and healthy atmosphere for diners by displaying vegetables fresh out of the ground.

The final theme I will talk about today is "earth." MUJI is always focused in on such details of life as houses and socks, but the shots for our corporate ads are as wide as possible to explore how we all live from a global perspective.About two years ago, I was searching the world for an ad theme, and found the Alpaca in Peru. These animals live on the Andes mountaintops in South America and are still as multi-colored as they were long ago. MUJI had begun to use Alpaca wool in its products. The women who live there knit sweaters, gloves and socks from the Alpaca wool they spin into yarn. The landscape here is extremely beautiful. I photographed this beauty in its natural state and used it in the ads.

I believe that images of people living naturally with the earth are extremely important.I took this photograph in Bolivia in 2003 for the horizon ad. I went to shoot the line where the sky and land meet. I wanted photographs that captured the sea, the land, and the sky in a single shot for our current ad campaign. The new cameras are incredibly advanced with fantastic resolution and focus that doesn't blur even at wide angles. We put ours in a camera housing to protect it while shooting in the ocean. We submerged the lens halfway into the water for an image that is half underwater coral reef and half land rising above it.

This photo was taken in the Raja Ampat islands of Indonesia where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet. It is said to be the most biodiverse part of the ocean in the world. The coral reef looks like forest growing under water and flows seamlessly into mountain forest above. We found coral blooming like flowers under water. It was an amazing sight. These flowers blooming where no one sees them. These are the colors you see underwater without any artificial lighting at all, and we submit to the viewer that this is "The Colors of Earth," as the copy says. The ad's message would be that this is how MUJI views the earth and that we use this as a model for what we do.

We also used the photo to make the sign for the Shanghai store. The Shanghai flagship store is the only place you can see the image this large, and I was very pleased to see that it had turned out so well.

We recently put out a book of messages similar to the ones in these ads. The book was edited by Kazuko Koike, and I did the art direction. The title, So Shu Ji Nen, is made up of four Japanese characters.

So refers to the original, natural state of a thing.
Shu means hand and refers to human activity, to making things by hand.
Ji is time. Here it refers to the history of the past and also to the future.
Nen comes from the Japanese word for "nature."
The book is made up of four chapters by the same names: So, Shu, Ji and Nen. In this book, we brought together quotes from books from all over the world and various photographs to create new images. Kazuko Koike and I discussed things a lot to narrow down our selections for the quotes. There is no intended relationship between the meaning of the quotes and the photos. But the two together may lead the reader to interesting associations. It's that kind of book. In some senses, this book is similar to what I've done with the ads. It is a significant way to communicate our ongoing thoughts about what the MUJI philosophy is.

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MUJI is more than simply a line of products. It is a way of thinking. "To be confident in a simplicity that feels in no way inferior to splendor." "The simplicity that comes from stripping away frills can surpass splendor." These concepts were advocated by graphic designer Ikko Tanaka, who was the first art director of MUJI.

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Ancient Egypt: Hieroglyphs and writing systems

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Tadao Ando of Osaka, Japan is a man who is at the pinnacle of success in his own country. In the last few years, he has emerged as a cultural force in the world as well. In 1995, the Pritzker Architecture Prize was formally presented to him within the walls of the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles, France. There is little doubt that anyone in the world of architecture will not be aware of his work. That work, primarily in reinforced concrete, defines spaces in unique new ways that allow constantly changing patterns of light and wind in all his structures, from homes and apartment complexes to places of worship, public museums and commercial shopping centers.

"In all my works, light is an important controlling factor," says Ando. "I create enclosed spaces mainly by means of thick concrete walls. The primary reason is to create a place for the individual, a zone for oneself within society. When the external factors of a city's environment require the wall to be without openings, the interior must be especially full and satisfying."

And further on the subject of walls, Ando writes, "At times walls manifest a power that borders on the violent. They have the power to divide space, transfigure place, and create new domains. Walls are the most basic elements of architecture, but they can also be the most enriching."

Ando continues, "Such things as light and wind only have meaning when they are introduced inside a house in a form cut off from the outside world. I create architectural order on the basis of geometry squares, circles, triangles and rectangles. I try to use forces in the area where I am building, to restore the unity between house and nature (light and wind) that was lost in the process of modernizing Japanese houses during the rapid growth of the fifties and sixties."

John Morris Dixon of Progressive Architecture wrote in 1990: "The geometry of Ando's interior plans, typically involving rectangular systems cut through by curved or angled walls, can look at first glance rather arbitrary and abstract. What one finds in the actual buildings are spaces carefully adjusted to human occupancy." Further, he describes Ando's work as reductivist, but "... the effect is not to deprive us of sensory richness. Far from it. All of his restraint seems aimed at focusing our attention on the relationships of his ample volumes, the play of light on his walls, and the processional sequences he develops."

In his childhood, he spent his time mostly in the fields and streets. From ages 10 to 17, he also spent time making wood models of ships, airplanes, and moulds, learning the craft from a carpenter whose shop was across the street from his home. After a brief stint at being a boxer, Ando began his self-education by apprenticing to several relevant persons such as designers and city planners for short periods. "I was never a good student. I always preferred learning things on my own outside of class. When I was about 18, I started to visit temples, shrines, and tea houses in Kyoto and Nara, there's a lot of great traditional architecture in the area. I was studying architecture by going to see actual buildings, and reading books about them. " He made study trips to Europe and the United States in the sixties to view and analyze great buildings of western civilization, keeping a detailed sketch book which he does even to this day when he travels.

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Biography: Tadao Ando | The Pritzker Architecture Prize

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Tadao Ando of Osaka, Japan is a man who is at the pinnacle of success in his own country. In the last few years, he has emerged as a cultural force in the world as well. In 1995, the Pritzker Architecture Prize was formally presented to him within the walls of the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles,…

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Issey Miyake

Issey Miyake was born in Hiroshima, in the southern part of Japan, in 1938. In 1965 he graduated from Tama Art University in Tokyo, where he majored in graphic design. Following graduation, he went to Paris just three months after Kenzo Takada, the first Japanese designer to became successful in France, arrived there. Miyake and Kenzo had known each other in Tokyo, and they studied together at a tailoring and dressmaking school, l'Ecole de la chambre syndicale de la couture. In 1966 Miyake worked as an apprentice under the French couturier Guy Laroche, and two years later he apprenticed at Givenchy.

He then went to New York to work with the American designer Geoffrey Beene before returning to Tokyo, where he founded the Miyake Design Studio in 1970. One of Miyake's New York friends took some of his design samples to Vogue magazine and a major department store, Bloomingdale's. Both Vogue and Bloomingdale's were enthusiastic about his work, and Bloomingdale's was so impressed that Miyake got a small section in the store. His first small collection in New York included T-shirts dyed with Japanese tattoo designs and sashiko-embroidered coats ( Sashiko is a Japanese sewing technique that gives strength to the fabrics used in clothing designed for workers). In 1973, when French ready-to-wear was institutionalized for the first time as prêt-à-porter, Miyake was invited to Paris to join a group show with such other young designers as Sonia Rykiel and Thierry Mugler. He opened a boutique there two years later and continued to show his collection in Paris. Miyake later became an official member of the French prêt-à-porter organization.

Founded Japanese Avant-Garde

Miyake laid the foundation in Paris for avant-garde designers worldwide, the Japanese ones in particular. He was showing in Paris long before other Japanese designers, and his presence was further pronounced by the emergence of two influential, norm-breaking designers.

Rei Kawakubo, working under the label Comme des Garçons, and Yohji Yamamoto began to present their collections in Paris in 1981 along with the already-established Miyake, who is considered the founding father of the new fashion trend. These three effectively started a new school of Japanese avant-garde fashion, although it was never their intention to classify themselves as such. Kawakubo said in an interview with Olivier Séguret in Madame Air France, "We certainly have no desire to create a fashion threesome, but each of us has a strong urge to design new, individual clothes which are recognizably ours" (pp. 140-141). Similarly, Miyake is quoted in Dana Wood's article in Women's Wear Daily as follows: "In the Eighties, Japanese fashion designers brought a new type of creativity; they brought something Europe didn't have. There was a bit of a shock effect, but it probably helped the Europeans wake up to a new value" (p. 32).

Miyake was the first to redefine sartorial conventions. His clothing patterns were very different from the Western styles in that he restructured the conventional construction of a garment. As the Time magazine writer Jay Cocks observed:

"Issey," asks one of his friends, standing in the middle of a bustling hotel lobby, "how do I work this?" ... "I made it like this," says the designer ... He unbuttons a half-cape that spans the sleeves, and puts the loose ends around his friend's neck. (p. 46)

A student who worked as a dresser backstage at one of Miyake's show in the late 1980s recalled the intricate construction of his garment:

"There was a garment that was totally out of shape and had four holes. You could hardly tell which holes are supposed to be for the arms to go in or the neck to go in. During the rehearsal, Issey's patternmakers would be going around the dressers making sure we knew which hole was for which part of the body. Models usually come running back from the stage to get changed to the next outfit, and it is our job to help them get dressed as quickly as possible with the right shoes, the right accessories and so on. It's a madhouse at the back during the show. At that point, you have no time to think which hole goes where! Some dressers couldn't match the neck to the right hole. It was totally wrong. But who can tell? "

In other words, it is up to the wearer to be creative and decide how to wear it. Miyake claims that simplicity is often the key to wearing his clothes, which are versatile enough to be worn in a variety of ways.

Western female clothes have historically been fitted to expose the contours of the body, but Miyake introduced large, loose-fitting garments, such as jackets with no traditional construction and a minimum of detail or buttons. His dresses often have a straight, simple shape, and his large coats with sweepingly oversized proportions can be worn by both men and women. He challenged not only the conventions of garment construction, but also the normative concept of fashion. All of this came at a time when women's clothes by most traditional Western designers were moving in the opposite direction, toward a tighter fit and greater formality. The avant-garde Japanese view of fashion was opposed to the conventional Western fashion. It was not Miyake's intention to reproduce Western fashion, as he pointed out in his speech at the Japan Society in San Francisco in 1984:

"I realized that my very disadvantage, lack of western heritage, would also be my advantage. I was free of Western tradition or convention ... The lack of western tradition was the very thing I needed to create contemporary and universal fashion. "

Sculptor of Fabric

Models at Issey Miyake show

Miyake is best known for his original fabrics. He collaborates with his textile director, Makiko Minagawa, who interprets his abstract ideas. With Minagawa and the Japanese textile mills, he introduced his most commercially successful collection, Pleats Please, in 1993. Traditionally, pleats are permanently pressed before a garment is cut, but he did it the other way round. He cut and assembled a garment two-and-a-half to three times its proper size. Then he folded, ironed, and oversewed the material so that the straight lines remained in place. Finally the garment was placed in a press between two sheets of paper, from which it emerged with permanent pleats (Sato 1998, p. 23).

"I am neither a writer nor a theorist. For a person who creates things to utter too many words means to regulate himself, a frightening prospect."

Issey Miyake quoted in Issey Miyake Bodyworks 1983, p. 99.

"When I first began working in Japan, I had to confront the Japanese people's excessive worship for foreign goods and the fixed idea of what clothes ought to be. I wanted to change the rigid formula of clothing that the Japanese followed."

Issey Miyake quoted in Issey Miyake Bodyworks 1983, p.103.

As early as 1976 Miyake began his concept of APiece-of-Cloth (A-POC), or clothes made out of a single piece of cloth that entirely cover the body. He introduced the line, which evolved from his earlier concept, in 1999.

The A-POC clothes consist of a long tube of jersey from which individuals can cut without wasting any material. A large variety of different clothes can be made in this manner; the tubes are manufactured with an old knitting machine controlled by a computer and can be made in large quantities. His objective was to minimize waste by using all leftover material. These garments allow the buyer to size and cut out a small hat, gloves, socks, a skirt, or a dress. Depending on the way the dress is cut, it may appear in two or three pieces. In addition to Miyake's APOC project, new techniques of sewing garments, such as heat taping and cutting by ultrasound, were also featured in his Making Things exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris in 1999.

Place in History

No history of fashion is complete without the mention of Issey Miyake, as he has made a major contribution to the world of fashion. Miyake retired from the Paris fashion scene in 1999, when Kenzo also decided to withdraw from his own brand. The Issey Miyake brand was taken over by Naoki Takizawa, who had been designing Miyake's Plantation Line since 1983 and Issey Miyake Men since 1993. Many of Miyake's former assistants, such as Yoshiki Hishinuma and Zucca (Akira Onozuka), now participate in the Paris Collection.

Every convention carries with it an aesthetic, according to which-what is conventional becomes the standard by which artistic beauty and effectiveness is judged. The conception of fashion is synonymous with the conception of beauty. Therefore, an attack on a convention becomes an attack on the aesthetic related to it. By breaking the Western convention of fashion, Miyake suggested the new style and new definition of aesthetics. It could have been taken as an offense not only against the Western aesthetic, but also against the existing arrangement of ranked statuses, a stratification system in fashion, or the hegemony of the French system.

Miyake's cutting-edge concept that there is beauty in the unfinished and the neglected has had a major influence on today's fashion. Miyake says, "I do not create a fashionable aesthetic ... I create a style based on life" (Mendes and de la Haye 1999, p. 233). He is opposed to the words "haute couture," "mode," and "fashion," because they imply a quest for novelty; he stretched the boundaries of fashion, reshaped the symmetry of clothes, let wrapped garments respond to the body's shape and movement, and destroyed all previous definition of clothing and fashion. His concepts were undoubtedly original, especially when compared to the rules of fashion set by orthodox, legitimate Western designers such as Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent. It was Miyake who set the stage for the Japanese look in the fashion establishment.

See also Japanese Fashion; Trendsetters.

Bibliography

Cocks, Jay. "A Change of Clothes: Designer Issey Miyake Shapes New Forms into Fashion for Tomorrow." Time, January 27, 1986, 46-52.

Holborn, Mark. Issey Miyake. Cologne, Germany: Taschen, 1995.

Koike, Kazuko, ed. Issey Miyake, East Meets West. Tokyo, Japan: 1978.

Mendes, Valerie, and Amy de la Haye. 20th Century Fashion. London, New York: Thames and Hudson, Inc., 1999.

Issey Miyake. Speech delivered at Japan Today Conference in San Francisco, September, 1984.

--. Issey Miyake and Miyake Design Studio: 1970-1985. Tokyo, Japan: Oubunnsha, 1985.

Sato, Kazuko. "Clothes Beyond the Reach of Time." Issey Miyake: Making Things. Paris: Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain 1998, 18-62. An exhibition catalog.

Séguret, Olivier. "Les Japonais." Madame Air France no. 5 (1988): 140-141.

Tsurumoto, Shogo, ed. Issey Miyake Bodyworks. Tokyo, Japan: Shogakkan, 1983.

Wood, Dana. "Miyake's Lust for Life." Women's Wear Daily, December 18, 1996, p. 32.

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Issey Miyake was born in Hiroshima, in the southern part of Japan, in 1938. In 1965 he graduated from Tama Art University in Tokyo, where he majored in ...

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Fashion Shows: Fashion Week, Runway, Designer Collections

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Get up-to-the-minute fashion show coverage at New York, London, Milan, and Paris Fashion Weeks. See photos, videos, reviews, and more.

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In the summer of 1992, the London press was all a-scribble about Lee Alexander McQueen's MA graduation collection, Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims. Among the dark, sexy, Dickensian delights from this cocky son of a cab driver were a thorn-print, silk frock coat with a three-point "origami" tail, and a bustle-backed tuxedo with a daggerlike, red-lined lapel-both with locks of human hair sewn into the lining. The presentation showed remarkable polish; but, then, the ambitious McQueen was already remarkably experienced: At 16, he'd ditched his schoolbooks and taken up a pair of scissors on Savile Row. Particularly charmed by the swaggering East Ender was the editor Isabella Blow, who snapped up his first effort in its entirety and swept the designer under her influential wing.

Early on, Alexander, as he called himself professionally, cultivated a reputation as Britain's baddest bad-boy designer. On his runway, punk-haired models flipped off the audience and flashed their buttock cleavage. (His notorious Bumster trousers, at first derided by the press, got a boost when the pop queen Madonna wore them; they would later be credited for the trend in low-rise jeans.) At the end of one show, he took his bow by mooning all assembled. Sure of his genius, he blew off interviews. He even stood up Irving Penn.

In McQueen's breakthrough 1995 collection, Highland Rape-addressing the abuses rained upon his Scottish forebears by the English-models walked the runway in tatters of lace and spatters of faux blood. "The McQueen experience tapped into a whole new range of emotions and psychoses," Vogue reported in 1999. Repeatedly accused of misogyny, McQueen insisted his only aim was to empower. "I want people to be afraid of the women I dress," he said.

In 2000, McQueen inked a deal with Gucci Group (now Kering), which took a controlling stake but allowed him to retain creative reign. Flagships opened in New York, London, and Milan, and fragrances were soon sold alongside eyewear and handbags. Menswear was introduced in 2004, followed by a secondary line, McQ, in 2006.

In October of 2009, McQueen hit a creative high with a Spring collection called Plato's Atlantis. But just a few months later, following the death of his beloved mother, the designer took his own life. "Creativity is a very fragile thing, and Lee was very fragile," his longtime collaborator Philip Treacy said.

In May 2010, Sarah Burton, who'd worked alongside McQueen for 14 years, quietly took up her mentor's mantle. A year later, her talent was on glorious display in the divine lace wedding dress worn by Kate Middleton for her marriage to Prince William. Today, Burton, who is putting more of an accent on wearability, has grand plans for the label to appear with greater frequency in real-world wardrobes.

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Xiaomi's old and new logos. Photo: Sina Weibo

The Chinese mobile giant Xiaomi unveiled its new logo on Tuesday, with the design provoking heated discussion online. Netizens is created by the internationally renowned Japanese graphic designer Kenya HARA and has said that it looks misleading like Xiaomi's original logo.

The new logo continues to adopt Xiaomi̵

7;s corporate color 'orange', which signifies the company's energetic and creative vibes. It also has a black-silver version to accommodate the company's advanced line. Other than this, there are some tinkers made on the "MI" style to make it look more aesthetically pleasing. Compared to such rather subtle design choices, the most obvious change will be that the square corners of the previous logo have been painted out, so that the new icon gets a softer and rounder contours on the corners of the logo.

"Alive" was the concept given to this new logo. It was conceived by creator Kenya HARA, a renowned Japanese graphic designer known for his unique style and design philosophy of combining minimalism with East Asian aesthetics.

Xiaomi's new logo is no exception; the seemingly simple "rounder corner" was the result of a complex "superellipse" mathematical formula for finding the perfect square circle that symbolizes Xiaomi's spirit.

"The new logo is not a simple redesign, but an encapsulation of Xiaomi's inner spirit," HARA said in an interview, explaining Xiaomi's logo design.

Kenya HARA's partnership with Xiaomi has become a popular topic on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, where it has received 200 million views since Thursday afternoon.

Despite the fact that some people think that the meaning of the new logo is too nuanced to be understood and claim that Xiaomi may have been "tricked" because there was not really much design on the new logo, there are still some who seem to understand the value .

"I understand Kenya HARA's points. Minimalism and being simple are very different concepts. Minimalism is never effortless; it is a deduction process to find what is most important. In other words, the seemingly simple form is definitely designed with a thought process in mind, not just a quick decision to just cut the corner. "I think the sophistication and subtlety of this logo really makes me believe that Xiaomi has some cool stuff," Wang, a graphic design expert in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"Working with a well-known designer is also a way that Xiaomi advertises, I think. See, the logo controversy has already made it a trend [topic] on Sina Weibo ..., "Tang, a PR expert in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.

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Designer Kenya HARA to give Xiaomi's brand spirit "alive" with a signature minimalist feel

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Xiaomi's old and new logos. Photo: Sina Weibo The Chinese mobile giant Xiaomi unveiled its new logo on Tuesday, with the design provoking heated discussion online. Netizens is created by the internationally renowned Japanese graphic designer Kenya HARA and has said that it looks misleading like Xiaomi's original logo.

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When it comes to shaping Japanese architecture today, there's no name more iconic than Tadao Ando. The self-taught architect was once on a path to become a successful boxer, however discovering a love of design he decided to follow a career in architecture despite any formal training

His unorthodox approach to art and design has seen him push the boundaries of what architecture can be time and time again. As well as creating imposing churches and breath-taking temples, Ando was one of the driving forces behind the rebirth of Naoshima as Japan's premier modern art destination.

To better understand the self-taught talents of Japan's most influential modern architect, we've put together a crash course in everything Ando. From how his beginnings as a sportsman and truck driver shaped his work, to the 10 Tadao Ando buildings you should visit while you're in Japan.

Ando's rise to architectural fame was an unconventional one. The Osaka visionary was born in 1941 and subsequently grew up in a Japan recovering from World War II. He was first drawn to architecture at age 15 after picking up a book of sketches by Le Corbusier, a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, and urban planner.

He didn't enter the field directly however, instead taking a variety of odd jobs. He saidin an interview with Tatler that to be the best architect "'[I]t's vital for one to take in a lot of scenery - travelling makes an architect. I became a boxer because the matches allowed me to travel overseas and experience different architectural styles."

Ando never studied his craft at any traditional institution but instead devoured books. His hunger for knowledge was so ravenous that to save for books he cut out a meal each day to afford them. By 1969 he was confident enough in the self-taught skills that he opened his one-man design studio, Tadao Ando Architectural & Associates.

What Makes Tadao Ando Architecture?

Ando explained inan interview that he believes "architecture is something to be experienced with all five senses - not just the eyes." His work is iconic and recognizable, but at the same time, it never feels cookie-cutter, and there's plenty of conscientious reasoning behind this. Ando's work has a strong foundational ideology, which he calls pure geometry. While imagining each piece he creates, attention to the detail of the building's natural surroundings dictate the shape of the outcome.

The theory of pure geometry means essentially to design a building to such perfection that it doesn't just look beautiful, but allows viewers to experience every element of a structure's surroundings. He wants people to rediscover natural and subconscious elements like wind and light. Many of his water-centric pieces which we will visit below are an excellent example of Ando's ability to interweave natural and man-made elements.

Zen aesthetics come from the philosophy of Zen Buddhism, and in simple terms, it's an appreciation of the beauty of simplicity (find out What is Zen Art?). The philosophy of Zen features heavily in traditional culture; it's the famous Japanese artful minimalism, insistent that often less is more. Ando's works embody this ideology even if unconsciously. In their stripped-back, concrete bareness his buildings carry a beauty that reflects his nature-driven focus.

As with all great art, there's no substitute for experiencing his work for yourself, so here are our recommendations for the 10 Tadao Ando buildings to see while you're in Japan!

1. 21_21 Design Sight (2007)

A meeting of two of the country's biggest design minds, 21_21 Design Sight is a collaborative effort between Ando and iconic fashion designer Issey Miyake. This design gallery is located in the densely museum-populated district of Roppongi. The idea of this particular building was not only to show works, but to create a center that looks into how the element of design enriches our daily lives.

Take some time to inspect the carefully hand-sanded steel roof, inspired by Issey Miyake's A-POC ("A Piece of Cloth") concept. Though most of this building is actually located underground, the long stretching panels of glass ingenuously allow natural light to flood the concrete bunker.

While you're visiting 21_21, here are some other top things to do in the Roppongi Art Triangle!

2. Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (2002)

TheHyogo Prefectural Museum of Artin Kobe isanother impressive work by this concrete loving architect. The purpose built municipal art gallery was opened in 2002 and features a variety of works from both foreign and Japanese artists. The most striking element of this art space is the staircases that have provided plenty of photographic fodder over the years! With architecture as striking as the art it holds, this place is really something special for art lovers of all walks of life.

3. Church of Light (1989)

If you ever find yourself in the humble town of Ibaraki, about 25km outside of Osaka it would be a crime not to pay a visit to the Church of Light, one of Ando's signature architectural works. Blending design, spirituality and history all into one building, this renovation Christian compound is nothing short of astonishing.

The mainly concrete building plays with light - an ideology similar the stained glass windows of traditional Christian churches - but he turns the whole idea on its head completely. This dark, meditative concrete shell of a building is pierced by an illuminated cross that transmits the natural outdoor light into the church hall. Mixing innovation with simplicity, this is one work Tadao Ando fans cannot miss.

4. The Oval at Benesse Art Museum Naoshima (1995)

Ando had a big hand in creating the landscape of Naoshima, an island that is now one of the most famous modern art destinations in Asia, and possibly the world. While writing a feature on Tadao's work and the works of Naoshima would require a whole new article, let's just look at The Oval as an example piece.

The Oval is one of Ando's most immersive works as it's a hotel. Only guests staying at the Oval have access to the space, which was constructed around the concept of coexistence between nature, art, and architecture. The building blends effortlessly into its surroundings while not being restricted by it. Built on a hill overlooking the Seto Inland Sea and the natural beauty of Naoshima, it's just a taste of Ando's work on this incredible island.

If you're interested to read more about Tadao Ando, including his many works outside of Japan, you can take a look at Tadao Ando: Complete Works 1975-Today by Philip Jodidio. It contains a comprehensive collection of his designs, including some interesting architectural sketches by the man himself.

5. 4x4 house (2003)

This building located in Kobe is powerful in its simplicity. It was the result of a magazine competition which saw Ando create a structure adapted to the specific requirements of the site, which was greatly influenced by the Hanshin earthquake that devastated the area less than 10 years before.

Once he completed construction in the first house, another client asked Ando to build something similar on the neighboring piece of land. This gave Ando the opportunity to fulfill his original idea of two houses crafted from different materials coming together to create one wholly impressive work of design. Situated on the Hyogo coast, each floor of these buildings is a concrete mass, which comes together to act like a lighthouse, offering incredible views of the ocean below.

6. Osaka Culturarium at Tempozan (1994)

One of Osaka city's most striking buildings, the Osaka Culturarium at Tempozan is an embodiment of Ando's love of pushing the architectural boundaries while exploring one of his favorite themes, the meeting of man, water and architecture. Situated on the Osaka harbor, this exhibition venue flows effortlessly into the neighboring ocean, blurring the lines of where exactly man and nature meet.

Many of Japan's best museums blend art and nature into an incredibly enlightening and refreshing destination. Check out some of our other favorites in the 6 Best Museums in Japan Where Art and Nature Collide!

7. Chichu Art Museum (2004)

Keeping the harmony between man and nature in mind, Ando built most of this museum underground to avoid impacting the naturally beautiful scenery of the Seto Inland Sea that borders the island. Keeping a very minimal aesthetic, the space is mainly built from concrete, providing the perfect low key (though still fascinating) backdrop to the works by James Turrell, Walter De Maria and Claude Monet that live inside.

8. Water Temple Hyogo (1991)

Tadao continued his unique envisioning of spiritual spaces with this, Honpukuji is a temple originally envisioned for the Shingon Buddhist sect. The modernist temple is connected to the original temple compound and cemetery by a sloping uphill path, thus connecting the past with the modern-day. At the top of the structure sits a pool of water that artfully reflects the natural beauty of the structure's surroundings, blending it into the scenery.

Splitting the pool in two is a staircase which leads down to the temple's most sacred site, the inner sanctuary. Visitors are gradually introduced into the sanctuary by the vermillion light which bounces off the concrete walls of the passageway, the light gradually growing brighter as you approach the inner sanctum. It's an ideal example of three recurring themes in Ando's work, his connection to spirituality, his playfulness with light, and his focus on blending his works with the natural surroundings.

9. Chapel on the Water (1988)

Nestled in the lush and often snow-covered hills of Tomamu, Hokkaido, is Chapel on the Water, one of the most striking churches in the country. Ando's church is comprised of two main cubes, the large of the pair is the chapel, while the smaller is the entrance and a spiral staircase conjoins the two. To enter the church is a ritualistic experience in itself. Guests must enter via the top class cube and make their way in procession to the lower floor.

The main feature of the church is its view, which looks beyond the alter onto a still pond. The building's nature-centric design ethos is worlds away from traditional, European churches which usually focus on artificial flourishes that separate the body from the outside, like stained glass windows and tall ceilings.

10. Osaka Prefectural Sayamaike Museum (2001)

This piece of architectural artistry long pre-dates any Tadao Ando projects. It was built on the bed of Sayamaike Pond, an artificial lake that has a history reaching back to the 7th century.

Water is the key protagonist of this building's story, so Ando literally wove it into the walls of this incredible piece of work. For five minutes every hour, water is pumped over the straight concrete walls, creating an artificial waterfall alleyway. It's the perfect harmony of both artificial and natural that only Tadao and his team could have envisioned.

What's your favorite Tadao Ando building? Let us know in the comments below!

JO SELECTS offers helpful suggestions, and genuine recommendations for high-quality, authentic Japanese art & design. We know how difficult it is to search for Japanese artists, artisans and designers on the vast internet, so we came up with this lifestyle guide to highlight the most inspiring Japanese artworks and designs for your everyday needs.

All product suggestions are independently selected and individually reviewed. We try our best to update information, but all prices and availability are subject to change. Japan Objects is a member of the Amazon affiliates program and if you buy something through our links, Japan Objects may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you.

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10 Iconic Tadao Ando Buildings You Should Visit

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When it comes to shaping Japanese architecture today, there's no name more iconic than Tadao Ando . The self-taught architect was once on a path to become a successful boxer, however discovering a love of design he decided to follow a career in architecture despite any formal training His unorthodox approach to art and design has seen him push the boundaries of what architecture can be time and time again.