AW 11-12: Everlasting Sprout

Japanese label Everlasting Sprout combines traditional japanese details and silhouettes with a decidedly modern and poppy sensibility. The results are both comfy/cozy and edgy/cool.

Japan Fashion Week: Mintdesigns

Mintdesigns usually shows some of our favorite collections at Japan Fashion week, and this year, we were intrigued by their use of color and explorations on plaids and stripes. In fact, the kaleidoscopic plaid looks a lot like a plaid we designed for our collection recently! Stripes and plaids begin to turn in on themselves, creating circles and stars. Colors are soft with flourescent pops in the shoes.

AW10 l Stripes

Tsimori Chisato

Mint Design, Discovered, Matohu, AirasaraBalenciaga

Above are some of our favorite stripes from Autumn/Winter '10 runways. From super bold to soft and sweet, stripes are...the new black.

AW10 l Japan Fashion Week l Lace and Crochet

Motonari Ono, Mint Design, Tokuko 1er Vol (x2), background, Pattern People

Here at the Pattern People studios, we've been obsessed with hand-drawn lace prints, and over in Japan, lace and crochet are being used in a variety of creative and fresh applications. We especially love the lace cumberbund of Motonari Ono, and the black crochet used in Tokuko 1er Vol's collection.

Japan Fashion Week AW10 l Folkloric

Everlasting Sprout

Phenomenon

Japanese labels Everlasting Sprout and Phenomenon featured sweater knits woven with folkloric charm. Sprout's presentation had a hand-made child-like sensibility that echoed Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox (which you must rent now if you haven't seen it. It is a heart-felt caper full of delicious visual details.) The naive artwork on Phenomenon's men's wear line is a warm contrast to the dark and tough 90's grunge look of the other pieces in the line, and also reminds me of some house wars I saw at Anthropologie recently.

Spring 10: Japan Fashion Week: Geos

Mint Designs, Matohu, Mint Designs, Matohu, Tiny Dinosaur

Matohu
Japan fashion week is a sea of inspiration. Geos from Matohu and others look new but familiar, and the cuts and drapes are impeccable.