Guests

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.

Knitting workshop

On May 18, 2018 we organized a small knitting workshop in collaboration with the fashion college. Students from the first and second year were invited to develop a few knit fabric samples making use of the knitting machines in the university campus, under the guidance of the course assistant Claudia Arana, who is an expert on knitting. The students were invited to work in two different knitting techniques, and the results can be seen in the picture below.

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.