TDW Fashion

I’ve blogged about Tokyo Design Week, TDW, the big design oriented event taking place every year in Tokyo. Here’s some more photos of some of the fashion exhibitions I liked, three designer’s whose work is inspired by the 18th century painter Ito Jakuchu, and in particular his famous painting of birds. The first dress is by Tamae Hirokawa (廣川玉枝), White Phoenix, inspired by that famous Ito painting with the same name. The second exhibit is Yasuhiro Mihara (三原康広), Yakuchucamo, and is a camouflage pattern of fighting birds. Last but not least is Kosuke Tsumura (津村耕佑), Anima, a puzzle dress.

Feathers for Flowers – Kosei Komatsu at TDW

Among the many good exhibits at this year’s Tokyo Design Week I found these pieces by famous feather/flower designer Kosei Komatsu (小松宏誠). He has a terrific web site here. Instead of using flowers for his arrangements he relies on feathers, and in this case, part of a bird itself to create these stunning pieces. The bird makes it feel almost gothic. The theme of his work and many other artists was Ito Jakuchu, a singularly important 18th century painter. If you are into traditional Japanese art you are bound to have seen some of his many famous paintings. The connection between the birds and animal scrolls of Ito and the present day pieces by Komatsu are very obvious.

Metal Animal Decorations

You know in Europe they have the Garden Gnomes, ceramic or plastic gnomes that seem to be almost everywhere? Here in Japan, it seems we are getting a case of the metal dogs! Have you seen these shop decorations in and around Tokyo? I run into them all the time and earlier this year I started taking photos of them whenever I saw them. Here’s a couple of photos (from Hamadayama and Ikebukuro), but I have plenty more.

Donut Decorations

My mother always said: “Once is None, Twice is Always”, and I’ll take her advice when it comes to judging this emerging trend in Japanese donut shops: donut decorations! If you happen to sell something that in itself is both colorful and with a distinctive shape, why not make it the centerpiece of your shop decoration theme, as in these two donut shops! One of them is in Omotesando in Tokyo, and the other one is in the Red Brick Warehouse down in Yokohama. When I was a kid I used to day dream about living in a house decorated like this. I still do, especially when I am hungry. Enjoy!