Richard's Wear 24Dec2015Thursday

 This is a suit, without removeable sleeves, made from remnant stretch gold fabric that originally was expensive though I bought it from a remnant shop at a small fraction of that original price.   

This whole LOOK fits my spirit---my FUNERAL SONG will be a theme by Kabocha Shyokai--my favorite Chin-don-ya band (walking street band).   

This suit is me---my daily mood since 18 years old---pure unmitigated joy.    The world comes to me daily when my eyes first open, as pure amazement.   Wow---what IS all this world stuff?   Each day I do not know what I am and what "out there" contains for me.   

The suit combines two obis, both with basic black backgrounds.  The stretch fabric is essential as the obi materials are very stiff.  The elaborated up the sleeves cuffs please me greatly--an experiment that worked well.   

 The back is about the same as the front---which is a boring lack of originality for me---but I designed this in 1996, so it is one of my earliest designs.   

Also I got the combination of colors and materials right, I think, so the gold and silver and black and red and other colors are in good proportions to each others.   

The whole outfit SHINES when I walk in sunlight or under street lights on evening streets.   Woe be unto the driver who hits me claiming he failed to see me!!!!

 This, at right, is an even earlier vest, circa 1993, made of very cheap ordinary obi material that came on roles remaindered from a failed factory.   The vertical flow patterns of green with gold down please me even today.  Got this one right too I think.  

 The pants are one obi pattern from waist to foot with the second obi in its center from waist to foot.  This works well on the sides where it does not rub anything and fray.   

Remember, obi materials fray easily as do woven kimonos like uchikake wedding kimonos (printed more recent kimonos are not use-able as the print cracks and flakes off with only a day or two of use).  

OVERALL--this suit is me---a good if not great expression of my basic lifelong daily mood---WOW---should be written on my forehead and car bumper---my basic likelong daily mood--WOW.

 

Richard's Wear Tues22dec15--ho ho ho

This is blue ladies swimwear fabric--stretch and moderately thick--with obi patches from 2 obis on it. The sleeves are removeable turning the jacket in summers into a vest of the circa 1890 sort.   They sleeves are wider and longer than needed--adds a "rich"ish look.   The hat, as usual for me, came with some shit material I threw away and replaced with a 25$ ladies belt (the double rows of sparkles on red leather background).   It makes me look a bit fat due to the scarf and vest underneath.   Actually these days I am leaner than I have been for the previous 30 years---due to teaching grad students from 40 EU nations at Keio.   

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 The suit was designed and made, I think, about 1995.   You can tell because one obi is MUCH better and more beautiful than the other---at that time I did not distinguish, well enough, good from average obi materials.   Also at that time I was breaking mindless symmetry habits in me but here only by material choice not by shapes.   

Most of my suits--not all--have obi material cuffs.  I dislike jackets without cuffs--the material hangs and get caught or eats puddings and knocks over drinks.  I have kimono shirts I wear, also with cuffs, so there is conflict for the same wrist space at times---I choose to live with that.   

The back of this suit is a mindless set of 3 shapes--which manage to dominate attention in crowds---there simply is NO other clothing anywhere with these types of mindless shapes on them, made out of expensive going-out-of-existence weaves (obis in Japan).

The vest is of the same period.  Out of uchikake--wedding kimono.  Notice here the asymmetry from mere material use works better--the left side facing it rather empty and the right side rather crowded with figures.   I like this effect.   

I plan to FIRST SELL such vests someday soon and one of my design principles for vests is patterns on BOTH front and back.  I really resent how ordinary couture designers pattern fronts more than backs---because they have cheap minds and tastes I think.   In cocktail parties, people notice the backs of my vests and jackets LONG before noticing my face and front--inherent in human shyness with strangers.   

The pants leg has triangle shapes down the side, distortedly visible here.   No particular reason for these shapes but this--a large obi triangle at the bottom with the triangle base at the pants leg bottom, has weight and stiffness that makes the pants material swing with each step in a fashion that look rich-ish.   

At places where I dine (snobby choice of word) when I remove my jacket above, revealing this vest, I hear ooo's and ahhhhh's from around the room--people respond viscerally to bright wedding colors and patterns of uchikake kimono material.