Guests

Visit by Bunka-ENSAD double degree alumna Laure Julien

On January 7th, 2025, Laure Julien, who did her double degree at our GFC course in 2020, visited the university to talk about her multiple professional experiences as an independent artist after her time at our course.

During her exchange at GFC, Laure decided to extend her time in Japan for one year, to intern with the brand Eatable of many orders (Atami, Japan), between 2021 and 2022, and apprentice with bamboo master Tanaka Kyokusho in 2022. While in Atami, she also participated in an artist-in-residence program that allowed her to develop and present a performance project with a butoh dancer dressed in silk and bamboo, inspired by the princess Kaguya. After her time in Japan, she returned to Paris to finish her education at ENSAD, where she developed a graduate collection of sculptures in bamboo and leather in 2023.

After graduation, she has been active as an independent artist, and participated in a residence project at Casa de Velázquez, Madrid, Spain, to study esparto weaving in 2024, and continued studying palm, bull rush, and soft rush weaving in Portugal during the same year. While participating in these apprenticeships and residence programs, she organised and participated in multiple exhibitions featuring her works in France, Spain, and Japan.

She returned to Japan in January of this year with a cultural activity visa, to participate in two artist-in-residence programs: a MIRA artist in residence program in Beppu, Kyushu, where she will be working with bamboo artist Takayuki Shimizu; and a residency at YUI-PORT in Niigata.

Her experiences provided a valuable inspiration for our current students, and showed that even with limited Japanese language skills, it is possible to participate in internships, apprenticeships and artist-in-residency programs in Japan! We wish Laure all the best of luck in her upcoming endeavors!

second WORKSHOP BY MARCUS WILMONT

Marcus Wilmont from the Royal Danish Academy held his second workshop series for our GFC students. This time, Marcus focused on practical in-studio exercises that explore shape generation from different perspectives. While doing so, Marcus encouraged the students to reflect on how we as fashion designers, perceive body standards and design for unreal bodies. This brought up discussions about inclusion and diversity of body types, gender, ethical or social backgrounds in the fashion system, and the role of the designer in creating alternative perspectives.

Workshop by Marcus Wilmont from the Royal Danish Academy

On April 8, 2024, we held a workshop organized by Marcus Wilmont, who teaches fashion design at the Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation. He introduced existing dichotomies in fashion and discussed how designers have the responsibility to create alternative perspectives that address matters of inclusion and diversity concerning body types, age, gender, and ethnic or social backgrounds, among others.

Through the practical workshop, he demonstrated how designers can re-examine and explore the design development process in ways that allow them to develop new, alternative artistic narratives. While working on the mannequin, the students had the opportunity to design for their muse, a real person they know and have a relationship with.

Nakshi Kantha workshop with Sarmily Sarker

On November 24, 2023 we were joined by Sarmily Sarker from BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology, who visited Japan and Tokyo for research. As part of her research schedule, ms. Sarker organized a workshop featuring “Nakshi Kantha,” a traditional embroidery technique of the Bengal region in Bangladesh and India. During the workshop, our GFC students had the opportunity to learn more about the history of the technique, and got to experiment with it firsthand through making some small samples. The three-hour workshop provided the students a space to share thoughts and experiences while embroidering, and we thank ms. Sarker for sharing this wonderful technique with us.

Visit by Fighting threads healing hands artist Diana Gardeneira

On November 20th, 2023, we organised a special lecture from Diana Gardeneira, an Ecuadorian-Costa Rican, visual artist and designer. She talked about her latest work “NMTKS” (No me toques in Spanish, Don’t touch me in English), which addresses issues of visibility of violence against women, protection, lack of representation, sisterhood, stories and collectivity. Using fashion’s political means of expression, Diana shared with GFC students her ideas of being a woman and how she confronts patriarchal structures through a series of clothing pieces.

Diana is part of the collective 闘う糸の会／Hilos que Luchan, Manos que Sanan (Fighting threads, healing hands in English), which promotes women’s empowerment and international exchange through collaboration between artists and citizens in Latin America and Japan.

Visit by Dr. Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran

On June 19th, 2023, Dr. Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran, who was a faculty member of our GFC course and currently works at RMIT, visited us to talk about her research theme of paper clothes, and the many different research projects she is currently undertaking in Japan, the Asia Pacific, Europe, and Australia. The students had an opportunity to learn more about paper clothing and the process of making paper clothes, as well as to think about ideas of decolonisation and the passing of practice-related knowledge onto other people and institutions.

Visit by Mr. Kubo Tadashi (Yohji Yamamoto)

On April 24th, 2023, Mr. Kubo Tadashi, who is in charge of the creative department at Yohji Yamamoto, visited GFC for a lecture. He discussed concepts of cultural appropriation, and his experiences and thoughts concerning the referencing of ethnic dress in the development of one’s own collection and expressions.
Our GFC students also had the opportunity to present their portfolio and to receive some feedback on their works, a valuable experience!

Mr. Kubo has been visiting our GFC program yearly since 2015, and some of our students have been able to conduct long-term internships at the Yohji Yamamoto studio. We hope that this tradition may continue into the future!

Visit by Prof. Dr. Clemens Thornquist

On October 12th 2019, Prof. Dr. Clemens Thornquist from Böras University in Sweden visited the studio to give some personal advice to the collection path students.
Dr. Thornquist is a design researcher and fashion designer who unites academy and art in his research. During his short stay in Japan he visited Bunka and our GFC course. The master students had the opportunity to shortly present their current works and to receive feedback on their progress.

Lecture and workshop session by Dr. Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran

On May 22nd, 2018 we organized a lecture and workshop by Dr. Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran, who just recently finished her PhD thesis at our university titled “Making and Growing Washi Paper Clothes: A Framework for Interspecies Fashion Design in the Anthropocene.” Her lecture focused on the topic of clothing made from Japanese paper. During the workshop, the master students were invited to learn how to turn sheets of paper into a textile for clothing using traditional techniques.

Lecture session with the Central Saint Martins research group

On May 21st, 2018 we held a lecture and discussion session with Professor Caroline Evans and Professor Alistair O’Neill (Professors of theory and history of CSM) and their three research group members of the research unit “Exploding Fashion: Cutting, Constructing and Thinking Through Things.” During the session, they introduced us to their research project, and their process up until the present.

For more information about the research unit and their project, please consult the following link.

Lecture session with Belgian designer Gioia Seghers and kimono demonstration with Sheila Cliffe

On April 6, 2018, we invited Belgian designer Gioia Seghers to talk about her past and current design projects. Gioia visited Tokyo to get some inspiration from Japanese aesthetics, and therefore we invited kimono expert Sheila Cliffe to our studio to do a small kimono demonstration. For this demonstration, Gioia was given the opportunity to experience kimono as a model to be dressed by Sheila.

For more information about Gioia Seghers’ work, please visit her webpage.

Workshop with Andrea Zapp

On September 26, 2017 we invited designer Andrea Zapp to talk about her design approaches and current projects. This lecture session was followed by a workshop involving kimono design methods. We first visited the exhibition of Yūzen designer ms. Tanabe in a small art gallery in Harajuku. After our return to school, we conducted a kimono dressing demonstration, followed by some demonstrations of kimono design methods making use of traditional katazome stencils. Furthermore, two young designers showed us how they made use of the stencil technique and turned it into their own personal expressions.