In front of the mirror, I work with the wooden mannequin on which I directly sculpt the dress form by the fabric. The dress has 360 degrees awareness.
Ando’s work is based on a simple proposition : ” Each person has a body.
The body expresses a person’s story and history, the dress is a language the expresses that body , the human body and the dress are both founded on the same principle: constant, unbroken perception “
Seven Sisters Seven Souls Seven Souls live in you The first dwells at the tips of your toes While the second to the sixth swirl round you, Up to your crown The seventh abides still higher All seven pulsate with life
Truth – Exists. CELAENO Love-Grows. STEROPE Harmony-Moves. TAYGETA Awareness-Creates. ELECTRA Peace-Rests. MAYA Happiness -Transcends all. MEROPE Plenitude-Eternal Joy AlCYONE
Seven Sisters Seven Souls We are different We are ONE
In the 21st century What can you share? Everything has come to end and has been reborn. Renaissance. I can say with much gratitude and happiness. Now, Only who you are in true. A Phenix, I would like to see you reborn. An open heart, a released body, a freely flying phenix. Love, New love is growing in you With deeper understanding and stronger senses. You accept everything with a smile on your face. 21st century, I am happy it we can share a much deeper and broader love.
In 1992, I read “Vionnet”, a book by Betty Kirke. Vionnet worked with a half-size wood mannequin to create her dresses.
She used to say, “What I created was not Fashion. It is harmony: an ensemble of shapes and colours that would never change nor age. I wanted only things that would last, not just for a month or a year, but forever.”
And, “There are no seams in the human body, anymore than there are in a piece of fruit.” These words, and the image of her dresses, revealed to me the truth about creating. She also said, “I have created dresses in my own way. All by myself, I brought about a revolution.”
She opened my eyes to the truth that real creation is complete liberation.
Complete liberation…
The Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre.
When I saw this statue for the first time, I felt an energy that was incredibly strong, sacred, the statue seemed immortal and alive. Grace becomes incarnate through the wind, which is the symbol of complete liberation. I felt the same complete freedom was expressed in the Winged Victory of Samothrace and in Vionnet’s dresses.
I began to create my dresses in my own way, as Vionnet had done, and my own unique method developed: creating a Dress with a full-size mannequin in front of a mirror and with the intention that my creation would give the same experience as the Winged Victory of Samothrace: complete liberation.
In 1994, I had my first exhibition in Paris. I would like to record the statement I made at that time.
Fashion is experiencing a period of transformation, and at this time of change I wish to seek out what new reason there may be for the existence of the Dress. I CREATE DRESSES FOLLOWING MY OWN WAY. The technical aspects of my own way of creating a Dress developed as I worked over the course of a year. I always respect the fabric; the fabric is living. I never oppose it. I always obey the fabric’s own fall and line.
As a result, the Dress I create follows the form of the human body. The fabric is folded, twisted, stretched: a Dress is completed. It takes life through the human body. The Dress is not inert. It is alive.
Every living thing evolves, just as a human being does. Fashion has left childhood and adolescence behind, and stands at a threshold: it must move on towards maturity. The time has come to change the reason behind the existence of the Dress. I feel the new Dress will be the Dress of maturity. A new Dress will be born out of maturity. It will encompass the whole process of the history of Fashion. This is what I wish to explore and experience by following my own way when I create a Dress. BEGINNING / ENDING I have looked back to the origins of the Dress. The Dress that I am exhibiting now expresses my research into the evolution of Fashion from its beginnings. I hope on another occasion in the future to present the conclusions to which my research leads me. Thank you. PARIS, March 1994 Fukuko Ando
FINALLY
In 1994, I felt that the Dress I would create for the future would be a new step in the evolution of Fashion. Now in 2014, I feel that my Dress is actually a step beyond Fashion itself. My own way of creating a Dress has led me to this conclusion.
