#anatomicouture

by Housekeeper, ph. Taro Hirano (2015)

A retrospective exhibition will be held at <Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery>. To commemorate that, I will store hand-drawn design notes!

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Jun Takahashi's start of <undercover> with a friend when he was at Bunka Fashion College. In commemoration of that, a large-scale retrospective exhibition started. " TITLED "LABYRINTH OF UNDERCOVER", mainly about 100 collection archives, videos, dolls, paintings, etc. are developed one after another in various spaces of various sizes. It is an exhibition where you can experience the complex and intertwined multifaceted creation as if you were walking in a labyrinth (maze).

SS07 ‘PURPLE’

A collection that became a turning point by launching a sensual and luxurious female image that could not be seen in the previous Undercover seasons. Jun Takahashi been drawing design notes since the past two years.

Design drawing of the dress on the photo. The organdy cut into a skull shape on the left page was placed throughout the dress.

Therefore, this magazine specially released the design notes of Jun Takahashi. The design drawing carefully drawn in detail using a Rotring mechanical pencil on an A4 size thick notebook made for each collection seems to be a work by itself. However, the design drawing was not drawn from the beginning, and in the early days, they drew textiles on a Mac computer and assembled them with three-dimensional cutting, and made clothes that were reconstructed by dismantling basic items. Jun Takahashi started to draw design drawings by hand since the Spring Summer 2005 season. He said, "I draw in great detail, so there is a limit with computers, and paper and pen are more free to expand ideas."

Some of the design notes will also be exhibited at the exhibition. If you compare it with the actual clothes, you should be able to get a glimpse of the secret and process of the creation of Undercover.

SS09 ‘GRACE’

A season that produced a creature doll called GRACE and expressed the collection with a photo book that shot it like a scene from a movie. " The doll of "GRACE" will also be exhibited at the exhibition.

Sketch of "GRACE". From the overall form to the range of motion of the neck and the size are drawn in detail.

AW13 ‘Anatomicouture’

"Anatomical" and "Couture" are combined to make "Anatomicouture". Motifs that make up the human body such as brain marrow, skeleton, and five organs appear in various clothes, such as prints, jacquard, and embroidery.

The original drawing of the lace used for the three-dimensional dress part of the look on the photo. This detail is beautifully reproduced.

SS15 ‘Pretty Hate Bird’

A woman who looks like a swan lake motif walks along a giant cherry figurine with a skull carved. Undercover expresses the unique dark fantasy in an elegant and cute way.

The look imaged by the design drawing is almost reproduced as a real thing. Is that technique a gift of 25 years of history? It is carefully colored with a marker on a sketch drawn with a pencil.

Jun Takahashi