A Great Evening At The Barbican

I spent the most amazing evening yesterday at the Barbican for a lecture called 'Flatness and Form'. It was an opportunity to hear from both Japanese and English designers looking into and discussing the influence of Japanese fashion.

The first talk was with design team Hiroyuki Horihata and Makiko Sekiguchi from Matohu. Matohu is a Japanese concept with two meanings, one is to wear clothes in such a way that it creates an atmosphere of beauty and the sense of restrain, the other is to not consume something hastily and throw it away. A refreshing change from main stream fashion where striving for the current 'IT or bang on trend item' seems to be the focus over having true style.

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The highlight of the evening was when Julian Roberts took to the stage and demonstrated his unique and revolutionary pattern cutting method 'Subtraction Cutting'. It is a technique that focuses on the hallow spaces between the garments and the body.
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Believe it or now the paper that Julian is holding up is actually a pattern.

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Julian's has a very creative website that appears to only be open on Wednesdays between 10-8. In reality it is open all the time, just change the date on your computer accordingly.

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Here Julian is holding yet The evening has been so inspiring, I can't wait to give this technique a try and see what my dress ends up looking like.

Julian's demonstration was so very hands on that it resulted in this dress being created. On the 5th of Feb he is doing a full day training course, I wasn't too surprise (although disappointed) to find out that the course is already sold out.

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Here is a better photo of Julian's designs, showing how wonderful they are.