As part of the London Design Festival 2016, one of my favourite designers, Yohji Yamamoto collaborated with the ‘Master of Pleats’ Pietro Seminelli to create a beautiful set of textile art works.
The Yohji Yamamoto boutique in Conduit Street hosts six textile works featuring different folding and weaving techniques which are designed like armour or a protective second skin, reflecting Yohji Yamamoto’s vision of the “protective” garment.
Seminelli creates his own fabrics in order to control the characteristics of pleating and each piece is made to measure by hand.
The way he works the pattern of the pleats is incredible. They seem precise and strictly detailed, but by using the textiles, they also seem elegant and subtly add volume to the surface.
The textile works are hung on wooden structures inspired by Japanese kimono stands. Each reflects a different “identity” – what happens to us when we are enveloped in it. From power, authority to hermit – each inspires us to think about the “alchemy which occurs when we dwell in the shape (of clothes)” and how clothes can “incarnate one’s character.”
It’s an exhibition of beautiful design and a thought-provoking take on how textiles act as second skins.
Yohji Yamamoto X Pietro Seminelli is at the Yohji Yamamoto boutique on Conduit Street, London, as part of London Design Festival, until September 24, 2016.
