FEATURE 03
Pursuing your Interests DESCENDANT and its Culture
DESCENDANT’s clothing creation has several approaches.
I want something like this, I want to wear it like this, I want to make it with this fabric.
Sometimes focusing on an item itself creates details, considering the scenes in which the clothing would be worn, stimulated by the textures and aging of the fabric, gives an image of the item, in which some cases can lead to a project.
In my daily life, for instance, I was interested in the outfits of the casts in movies, reading old magazines and being inspired by the color usage, coming up with ideas and details while camping, and recalling nostalgic feelings and memories whilst handling vintage items at thrift shops… Things like these have always given me inspirations.
Those inspirations lead to the projects in creating clothing, the inspirational images are then shared to the team, the process to search for fabrics, trims and parts begin, modified to align with DESCENDANT, to pursue its specifications. Each item has its ideal materials, such as for authentic workwear, it is polyester blended cotton twill, cotton or nylon blended back satin or ripstop for a classic military. If outdoor in the 90’s, a combination of style and technical fabric properties such as water repellency and durable functional materials have been established over time. It’s okay if the fabric’s feel and/or color is consistent with the image of the memory, but if it does not match, it is not unusual for us to custom make the fabric itself.
The methods of stitching and embroidering of fabrics have their own features for the era, we stock a lot of vintage clothes in our studio, to document the details of that era, as archive references.
For example, when we embroider a character on a jacket, it is essential to follow the particular specifications of that era by referencing the kept archives, as diverting from the actual fabrics or even a single needle stitch will change its character. In the case where a specialized machine is necessary to reproduce the sewing of an earlier generation garment, old sewing machines that the staff happened to source from a production factory becomes particularly useful. Also, in the case of tie dye and bleaching processing developed for shirts and cut-sew, in order to confirm the tone of dyes and bleaching reactions, it is tested and repeated many times over, before sending it off to the production line. In addition, irrespective to the sampling of collection products, members of the team ordered their own personal dyed and damaged denim from the factory, which in turn resulted in productization.
Products that focus on the item itself, those items that have been imagined worn and those items that are inspired by the impressions of the fabric … Even though these products may have been conceptualized with a completely different beginning, they are equal in the final outcome and I think that is DESCENDANT’s clothes. There is culture in a place where you enjoy the things you like, and DESCENDANT’s clothing, rooted in such a culture is certainly unusual, but it is truly the only way we know how.