Getting into Ninomiya Kei’s World
So, I stumbled across Ninomiya Kei’s stuff some time back. Wasn’t really looking for it, you know? Just browsing online, maybe looking at fashion week pictures or something. And bam, there it was. This collection, mostly black, but not just black. It was structured, complex, looked almost like armor sometimes, or maybe flowers made of tough stuff.
First thoughts? Honestly, a bit confused. It wasn’t like the usual clothes you see. Looked hard to wear, maybe even uncomfortable. But I kept looking. There was something about the way things were put together. Not just sewn, you know? Looked like things were snapped, linked, woven almost. Like building blocks but for clothes. It got me thinking.
I’m not a designer, not by a long shot. But I like tinkering, figuring things out. So I thought, hey, let me try and understand this. Not copy it, that’s impossible. His team, the materials, the skill… worlds away. But maybe capture a tiny bit of that feeling? The construction part.
So, I decided to try a little project. Super simple. I grabbed some scrap black fabric I had lying around. Old t-shirt maybe? And some basic crafting wire, the thin stuff. My idea was to make a small panel, something textured, using just folding and maybe twisting the wire to hold it, kind of mimicking how he avoids traditional sewing sometimes.
- Got the fabric, cut it into strips.
- Tried pleating them real tight. Fought with it a lot, fabric kept slipping.
- Then I tried using the wire, threading it through folds, twisting it at the back. Looked messy. Really messy.
- Spent maybe an hour just fiddling with one small square. Folding, unfolding, trying to make the wire less obvious.
The result? Ha. Looked nothing like Ninomiya Kei’s work, obviously. It was a crumpled piece of black fabric held together with bits of wire sticking out. Looked kinda rough, honestly. My wife asked me what on earth I was making.
But here’s the thing. Going through that process, even failing at it, made me appreciate the real deal so much more. The precision needed. The thinking behind how each piece connects. It’s not just random complexity; there’s a system there. You only really get that when you try, even badly, to figure out how it might be done.
So yeah, my little experiment didn’t produce anything fancy. But messing around with that fabric and wire gave me a much better sense of the sheer effort and creativity involved in those pieces you see on the runway. It’s one thing to see a picture, another thing entirely to try and replicate even a tiny feeling of it. Makes you respect the craft, you know?
