Visual Tales

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The New York magazine Visual Tales dedicates a large editorial to a promising young talent – XIMON LEE. His graduation collection this year from Parsons titled  Children of Leningradsky was unanimously acclaimed, gaining enthusiastic reviews everywhere. Recently, Ximon Lee was announced as one of the eight finalists for the H&M Design Award 2015.

Ximon is from Hong Kong but now lives in New York. His diploma collection inspired by the documentary “Children of Leningradsky” approaches menswear design in a very particular way. Taking inspiration from the oversized clothes worn by homeless children in Russian suburbs, he experimented with layered fabrics and exaggerated shapes, exploring the contrast between synthetic and organic textures, between glossy and raw. The outstanding sandwiched pieces in Ximon Lee’s collection are based especially on recycled denim. Working a lot with found materials, he deconstructed and re-patterned many garments from Salvation Army, experimenting various techniques and surface treatments. The result is clean, bold, unisex, global, timeless, emotional. A body of work interesting not just in terms of fabrics and shapes proposed, but also in the way designer chooses to formulate his personal approach to the world of fashion: simple, smart, genuine. Perfect!

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Editorial in New York City magazine Visual Tales / Photographer: Jennifer Livingston / Styling: Haidee Findlay-Levin / Model Jeremy Matos (Red Citizen) /  Featured designs: Ximon Lee / images via thefashionisto.com

 

Rotten Salad

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Originally from Geneva, Kosuke Araki is a Japanese designer living in Tokyo. He studied at Tama Art University Tokio and he also has a MA degree in Design Products from Royal College of Art London. Kosuke Araki interned at Nike and his projects were displayed in various exhibitions. His work covers different areas, questioning the values and sensitivities of our age, dealing with consumerism and the process of rapid modernisation.

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Kosuke Araki – FOOD WASTE WARE -in Kitchen (2013)

With his project Food Waste Ware, Kosuke Araki gives new life to food waste. Food waste is a global problem and Araki puts it in a very personal way. And it’s not only about sustainability. Designer uses food waste from local markets, shops and his own kitchen to create a wide range of tableware – food waste bowls crafted from rotten vegetables, leftover bones and even tea bags. He also delivers a booklet called A New Life for Food Waste that teach us how to replicate the results at home.

These photos show how much food is discarded from food markets, shops or kitchens on a daily basis. Araki asked food shops to put aside some organic waste for him so he went to collected the pieces after the closure. According to one report, even people who believe that their household wasted no food were shown to be discarding 88 kg of avoidable food waste per year. As he says:

“I could imagine that most of us are unaware of the amount of food we throw away, so I took a one-month record of food waste from my kitchen. I am living alone and cook only for dinner, but even so, every week I could have around 1 kg. Every day, food waste is produced at a huge industrial scale as well as a small domestic scale. Although some of it is processed into something useful, most is disposed of in landfills, contributing to environmental problems.”

The idea of Araki’s project was to revive wasted lives by giving them new roles. Designing the set of bowls, he researched alternative ways of reshaping the material trying to avoid the usage of a silicone mould, which is derived from petroleum, and to make all the process done only by natural materials. Aiming to enable users to design their own tableware out of the food waste they produce daily, he also invites the audience to become more aware of the amount of food waste they generate day by day.

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Kosuke Araki – food waste bowls + manual

TOGA

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TOGA‘s Fall 2014 collection entitled “Crudity, Durability, Roughness” explores the American West in a very peculiar way. There’s a lot of buzz around Americana style lately, but fortunately there are also plenty of creative resources to be found in designers’ collections. Especially when we’re talking about Japan versus America (via Europe) the result might be even more interesting.

Japanese designer Yasuko Furata graduated from Esmod in Paris before going on to work as a freelance costume maker. She launched her label Toga back in 1997. In 2004, TOGA opened its first boutique in the Ebisu district of Tokyo. Today, TOGA has over 30 shops all around the world. Distinguished by its exclusive fabrics research and experimental volumes, the Toga silhouette is urban, deconstructed and avant-garde. Defining her design as “Toughness and unique sexiness, hidden in elegance that uses complex female images to evoke all the senses”  Yasuko likes contradictions such as the combination of conflicting materials, interpretation of classic elements into casual styles, and the elegant presentation of sportswear elements.”

Indeed, these pieces are beautiful and provoking in terms of silhouettes, fabrics and associations, resulting in an efortless chic layerings of apparently contrastant elements. Addresing to a free-minded, contemporary, global woman, TOGA is a a label that certainly deserves un certain regard.

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catwalk images via style.com