On January 22, 2016, as part of Paris Fashion Week, the CHRISTIAN DADA brand presented its fall/winter 2016 men’s collection entitled Love On The Left Eye at Galerie Perrotin. Designer Masanori Morikawa imagined this new collection in collaboration with legendary Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, drawing inspiration from his photos. In so doing, he pays tribute to the man’s contribution to the art world.
“Living in our modern age, I feel that this concept of life and death is more and more present in me. It was with this in mind that I came across Araki’s work, which deals with this theme in a unique way that is all his own. In a way, this is what gave me the idea for this collection,” explains Masanori Morikawa.
Morikawa discovered a series of works bearing the title Love On The Left Eye while at a solo exhibition by the artist at Taka Ishii Gallery in 2014. As it happens, since 2013, following a retinal arterial occlusion, the photographer has been virtually unable to see out of his right eye. As a result, the right side of the photos in the Love On The Left Eye series, taken on film, was blackened with a marker on the negative, before they were printed on paper. In this way, the paper photos reflect Araki’s vision: the left side is the clear image he sees, and the right side is obscured. This series truly embodies the Nobuyoshi Araki of today; it’s an affirmation that “photography is life”.
“Death catches up with us all, you know. I don’t want to get too close to it, but we can’t avoid the fact that it comes to us. All we can do now is laugh about it,” declared Nobuyoshi Araki.
MasanoriMorikawa had the idea of incorporating these photographs into his latest CHRISTIAN DADA collection, using a highly complex technique of jacquard weaving, textile printing and digital embroidery. Several pieces were also made using traditional Japanese craft techniques, such as yokoburi and yuzen, to give the collection an authentic and unique character. These typical techniques, combined with other textures such as leather, denim, knitwear and fleece, have become the house’s trademark. Morikawa adds depth to his creations by superimposing several techniques on top of each other, for example an embroidered detail on the floral jacquard fabric of a double-breasted jacket. Various aspects of Araki’s work emerge from the collection through accessories such as fasteners, ties and braided ropes, which are a direct reference to the bondage theme found in his photographs. Silhouettes come to life with details such as garment edges left unfinished or seams adorned with fabric pieces and embroidery. The collection also uses shades of color inspired by the photos, focusing on olive green, blue, purple and red. The result of this collaboration, where art and fashion merge, culminates in a visually fascinating collection, which will be presented alongside Araki’s photos from the Love On The Left Eye series.
Nobuyoshi Araki says: “It’s so much fun to see my work take on other forms. It’s like adding a new story to my work. I love that it continues to be disseminated through other people, allowing its spirit to be passed on to new generations.”
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