While going over looks from Tokyo Fashion Week I came across Fashion Designer Apocrypha. The color combinations and lace materials grabbed my attention. I sent him an email. Happily, Creative Head Reiji Harimoto responded to grant Black and Paper an interview.
What does the white represent in the collection?
It has several meanings. First, the white must be a standard color in the style of the historical background, imagined the situation in Europe during the regent era. Second, this collection is inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s collection of poems. It only has the information of black ink visually dropped on white paper. However, there are an infinite number of colors that can be imagined from that information. Black ink on paper is generally colored by subtractive mixing, but by reading this as letters, one can imagine a scene that is colored by additive mixing from a dark state with nothing in the head. In this collection, white is the imagination of color, which is the basis of subtractive mixing. His poems are colored based on the experience of the reader, who must have fallen in love once.
DANDY
Lace is more of a feminine material but you have incorporated the material in the menswear looks, why?
I think Baudelaire’s poetry is an objective and abstract depiction of Baudelaire’s own life, which always depends on women. I also wanted to express such a view of the world. It may be “feminine” by being worn by women. However, when men wear it, it has some kind of matured ”masculinity”. Maybe I wanted to get rid of the peculiarity. Also, during the time of George Brian Brummell’s life, which is the origin of “Dandy”, the way of life of Baudelaire, mechanical lace knitting machines were born in England. It is a technology that has survived the Luddite movement and continues to evolve to the present day. Isn’t that too wasteful to categorize by gender?
DANDY Lace is more of a feminine material but you have incorporated the material in the menswear looks, why?I think Baudelaire’s poetry is an objective and abstract depiction of Baudelaire’s own life, which always depends on women. I also wanted to express such a view of the world. It may be “feminine” by being worn by women. However, when men wear it, it has some kind of matured ”masculinity”. Maybe I wanted to get rid of the peculiarity. Also, during the time of George Brian Brummell’s life, which is the origin of “Dandy”, the way of life of Baudelaire, mechanical lace knitting machines were born in England. It is a technology that has survived the Luddite movement and continues to evolve to the present day. Isn’t that too wasteful to categorize by gender?
Gothic Chic
What is the Gothic link to the Spring 21 designs?
The answer depends on what you mean by “Gothic” in the question. If I dare to answer in the first place, if you see this collection and feel the Gothic element, it is a scene that you can see from the background of the times, as answered in the first question. If so, I think I have succeeded in expressing my most important “collection should be a literary art drawn with clothes”.
Are you making a gender statement about modern fashion?
In Japan, it seems that gender controversy is often going in the wrong direction. For example, regarding feminism, misandry ideas are strongly felt, and relatively aggressive claims are becoming mainstream in SNS and social media. Many are neither calm nor academic. I don’t think it is desirable to have a conflict with a principle. Also, there are many women with strong social status around me in the fashion industry. When I listen to their opinions, I think that the stronger those claims are, the more isolated they are, and the more the conflict of principles is just creating a groove. I think the same can be said from liberalism and other ideas. That’s why I wanted to create a categorized creation.
Oversized
Where would a guy wear your pieces?
The image of a man I imagine exists in a twilight space between morning and night at dawn, between daily and extraordinary. It’s just an imagination, and in reality, I’d like you to put it into your own identity and wear it as your own in every scene of everyday life. Because the person who wears it in every scene is the main character. If you’re in Hollywood and your main character is a profession, maybe it’s only when you’re on the red carpet.
I noticed the A/W collection was oversized with layers combined with streetwear style, what influenced this?
Reproduced relatively faithfully to the historical background. I create all the patterns myself, so every season there is a theme in pattern making as well as design. In the theme of the collection, we analyze the social situation and trends of the historical background and calculate back from the one at that time to create a pattern. You cannot create an atmosphere that feels “somehow” just by adding details to the existing body. This is also the theme of life, which is always in conflict between commercial design and authorship.
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