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designer inspiration:a report on three inspirational designers who are felt as kindred spirits with regards to their taste level, aesthetic, quality and vision.

-Akira Isogawa-Toni Maticevski-Bianca Spender

Designer Report |Christine Pan | Sept 2011 22

My appreciation is really in fabric first of all. And then construction comes later. I guess the same thing can be said with traditional Japanese costume - such as a kimono. The patterns are all similar - or in fact they are all the same, really. The square piece of cloth made into sleeve as well as front bodice and than back bodice. That’s all it is. And what I appreciate is it’s not really a shape of garment but textile within colours within tex-ture; woven fabric or jersey, really, it doesn’t matter. -Akira Isogawa

“You must recognise that space between the skin and the body changes when the textile is loose, I feel that fashion transcends what we think it is, it should be our ex-pression, our identity. When I design, I try to be honest and to communicate something within me. (But) my job is to cover the body in a flattering way”.-Akira Isogawa(The Age Sept 2008)

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Akira Isogawa has been a favou-rite since the very beginning, his use of sensual sheer fabrics and vibrant colours and oriental-in-spired textiles creates a distinctive aesthetic for his garments. Akira’s fitting garments which drape off the body reflect a Japanese heritage of kimonos and resemble a similar look to Commes des Garcon.

Akira’s design aesthetics is defined by vibrant textiles and complex pattern cutting. His textile based work has developed through dying, printing, embroi-deries or even hand painting his own designs. Floral motifs of leaves and flowers feature heav-ily in his textiles with stylised shapes used as repeat patterns taking inspiration from Oriental Japanese silks used in kimonos. Colours is also an important part of his aesthetic, employing rich scarlet reds, crimson, fuschia, lemon yellow, white, sombre greys and greens.

Complex pattern shapes are cre-ated through a combination of draping on the mannequin and pattern cutting to achieve the vol-ume and silhouette he is after. A-line/tube silhouettes are common

in his collections and frequently feature voluminous shapes which taper down from the shoulders and billow out below the knees. Loosely draped garments are worked with luxurious silk -de chine and wool, whist structural egg-shaped garments often use wool and cotton. Silk organza and bridal tulle is often used to overlay a garment shell or to add volume underneath, creating ethereal, floating garments.

His collections take inspiration from surrounding nature, culture music and Japanese arts and traditional dress. His Autumn/Winter 2005 embroidered red cape with vintage kimono motifs featured the words from Art Mooney’s 1948 hit Bluebird of Happiness (the pianola roll).

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Toni Maticevski’s sudden explo-sion onto Australia’s fashion scene with his beautifully constructed silk dresses owes his success to his feminine designs. Ballgowns and dresses are created through master-ful drapery techniques whilst other more tailored pieces such as skirts and jackets are made through flat-patternmaking.

His taste level is luxurious, draw-ing inspiration from old English world glamour and cocktail dresses bespeckled in fine crystals and lace embellishments. Maticevski designs for the confident woman; with both power and beauty his dresses stand out as a celebration of femininity, cut with incredible precision and awareness of the female body. Ac-centuating the female shoulders, neck, back and legs by draping the fabric sensuously around, inter-twining or framing through slits in the hems. In other ways, copious amounts of fabric create a volumi-nous hem, billowing and floating dramatically as the model walks the runway and indeed when the wearer enters a room. His aesthetic is dreamy, effeminate and classy.

Drapery is a favoured technique, utilised through scrunching the fabric, gathering, tiny tucks secured through hand-stitching. His atten-tion to detail is speculator, each fold in the fabric deliberate and planned, the way the fabric falls a the shoulders or hem is draped or cut and spread on the table due to its expansive use of fabric. Sheer silks are used in two ways.. The first as

an expression of structure, where the silk forms the garment itself and drapes completely off the body, hanging by the shoulders or tightly wrapped around the waist.. In other ways sheer silks are used as an outer layer, taking advantage of its transparency and layered over short dresses and skirts, revealing the legs. Lace garments are used tightly fitted to the upper body or as dresses.

Maticevski mainly embellishes around the neck of the garment, in a n area most noticeable and for maximum impact with the least materials. In a way, his aes-thetic is although uses overflow-ing fabrics achieves this look of abundance in a very resourceful way. Fabric manipulations take inspiration from floral motifs, gathering sheer fabrics and used as a decoration upon a tailored shell, such as a tightly fitted shirt or dress. His last 3 collections have been more tailored and paired back, using muted palette of mainly, white in his tailored pieces. Ruffles and flounced around the shoulder feature fre-quently at the shoulder or waist, giving feminine form.

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Bianca Spender as similar and yet distinct in many ways from her mother Carla Zampatti’s label, Bianca Spender spent 3 years studying drapery in Italy and this can be seen in her design aesthetic utilising jersey and silks. Her last 3 collections have been a combination of drape and tailored garments, both predominantly achieved through draping. Her loosely drapes gar-ments hang off the shoulders and waist reminiscent of greek/ro-man statues, silky smooth folds enveloping the body. Twists of fabric and gathering is employed to frame the body, creating gaps highlighting different areas of the body, such as the neck and back. Cut outs are also used to this effect and seems to mainly create patterns of skin on the body rather than emphasising the space between body and gar-

ment. Spender’s design aesthetic is elegant, contemporary and young feminine, utilising soft matte silks and shiny silk dupioni in bold vi-brant blues, black, gold and pinks.

She rarely uses embellishments, surface decorations or textiles prints and focuses mainly on silhouette construction aspects of garments. The shadows cre-ated from folds of fabric is a main motivator for her designs, creat-ing textures and a minimalist, feminine look. Spender’s a-line or tube aesthetic is very contempo-rary and modern drawing similar-ity to international designer Stella McCartney. She is influenced by Japanese artists Chiharu Shiota and Hiroshi Sugimoto in their ex-quisitely simple and subtle visual expressions, muted colours and blurry outlines.

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