AKIRA ISOGAWA TO DEVELOP ‘BANSHU’ TEXTILES IN JAPAN
Fashion designer; Akira Isogawa, together with WA Textile artist and agent to the BANSHU Japanese group SBK, Jennifer Gaye, have been invited to visit Japan and its textile industry in March 2014.
Akira will be a guest of SBK (Ozawa textile & Naigai Orimono), for his own collaboration, as part of the ‘Japan Brand Project’ coordinated to cross with the 2014 ‘BANSHU Fashion & Textile Program’. The BANSHU Program was established in 2010 to assist Western Australian based fashion students and designers with the opportunity to develop cloth at the Ozawa and Naigai textile workshops in Hyogo, Japan. Each year students from a variety of WA Fashion schools are eligible to apply and after a selection process, participate.
Jennifer Gaye has supported the BANSHU program since 2011 and stated “a very exciting couple of years supporting one of WA’s, most amazing, collaboration and exchange programs on offer…” Jennifer also mentioned “A similar BANSHU exchange is also offered to PARIS Fashion Schools and designers, which have sometimes crossed over with the WA PROGRAM, allowing WA students and designers, to network and experience other cultural collaborations” …
Established designer Aurelio Costarella was invited in 2013, for his own collaboration and hopes to return in 2014 to continue his support. He has found it beneficial to develop fabrics and create inroads for his brand in the Japanese marketplace. Last year saw Aurelio Costarella include two of his developed BANSHU textile designs as part of his “30 year Retrospective exhibition” at the West Australian Museum.
This year, internationally acclaimed, Akira Isogawa, after keeping a keen eye on the BANSHU collaboration for the past 10 months, accepted the opportunity to develop his own ideas. To take his own journey of BANSHU, and it’s history of Japanese cloth. With Akira’s appreciation & exceptional use of fabrics, Akira Isogawa just seems the perfect match for BANSHU textiles & it’s continued tradition…
Ozawa and Naigai are two Japanese textile companies who pride themselves on their traditional values, keeping the production of their woven textiles within the same region that they have always been created and produced in, using local skills and natural resources.
In an ever changing industry Ozawa and Naigai textiles understand a need to look further afield, to broaden their market and in turn share their knowledge and skill at creating amazing textiles and opportunities by collaborating with creative designers who are in the beginnings and those established like Akira Isogawa.
Akira, along with Costarella and established designers from Paris, join an impressive stable of international designers including Issey Miyake and Louis Vuitton who have utilised the techniques and cloths at Ozawa and Naigai. “I am looking forward to this upcoming collaboration with Ozawa and Naigai Textiles and appreciate the generosity of Mr. Ozawa and Mr. Takase for inviting me to their factories.“ Akira Isogawa states “This unique opportunity will allow me to explore, challenge and experiment design techniques with textiles. Providing a different point of view in a collection creates interest and individuality to a garment. I also like the blend of cultures that this BANSHU project is encouraging, it builds invaluable relationships across the world of fashion, not only for myself but designers from all generations”.