True Colors FASHION presents the documentary
“Clothes in Conversation”
“Clothes in Conversation” documents the meeting of diverse minds and bodies, and the process of their collaboration to create six looks featuring adaptive clothing.
“Clothes in Conversation” captures the fascinating and honest dialogue of six diverse pairs of designers and models who each collaborate to create and showcase a piece of adaptive fashion.
The six models are Mariko Sugawa, Myu Ashihiara, Koichi Omae, Kaito, AOI YAMADA, ChibiMOEKO, each one bringing to the table their beautiful, diverse bodies of all sizes, some of which are accompanied by wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs. The common thread among them is that each has a great love for fashion and longs to be dressed in creations tailor made for them.
Rising up to the challenge are six designers: Hana Yagi, Daichi Tabata, Hideki Ichikawa, Koki Saito, SiThuAung, Sari Takikawa—graduates and undergraduates of coconogacco, a private fashion school that has produced some exciting emerging designers to the world. The school was founded by Yoshikazu Yamagata, the first Japanese contestant for the LVMH Prize and is part of the BOF 500, a professional index of the people shaping the fashion industry.
"The role of fashion design is to expand the range of personalities and ways of life, and to express a new image of humanity. Through this project I saw an image of humanity that I had never imagined before," said Yamagata.
Directed by Hiroki Kawai ("Uta no Hajimari”, or “The Beginning of a Song”), “Clothes in Conversation” documents the struggles the models and designers experienced as they are confronted by their individuality in the months leading up to the completion of the project. The finale, which introduces the six completed work, is photographed by LILY SHU, with music composed by Shuta Hasunuma.
“Clothes in Conversation” demonstrates how rewarding it can be for one’s individuality to be recognized and represented. It’s an important conversation that shows how adaptive clothing must be part of the fabric of fashion, retail and everyday life.
True Colors FASHION presents the documentary
“Clothes in Conversation”
Streams from: March 5, 2021 (Friday)
Website:True Colors Festival Official Youtube Channel
【Japanese Audio Description Version】
【Japanese Subtitled Version】
Release Date: March 5, 2021 (Friday)
Streaming for free on: THEATRE for ALL
【English Subtitled Version】
Release Date: March 16, 2021 (Tuesday)
(Schedule is subject to change)
Streaming for free on: True Colors Festival Official Youtube Channel
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Japanese subtitles, English subtitles
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Japanese audio guide
Meet the designer and model collaborators
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Koki Saito
Born in 1990 and raised in Aomori, Japan. Graduated from Tohoku University of Art and Design, Department of Product Design majoring in interior design in 2013. Later studied at coconogacco and participated in Shibuya Fashion Week. His garments were featured in Vogue talents.
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Kaito
Born in 1997. Kaito has participated in the Down Syndrome World Swimming Championships twice and set Asian records in the men's 100m backstroke, the 50m backstroke, and the 200m medley relay in Canada in 2018. He has received the Meguro City Sports Awards consecutively since its establishment in 2019, and is aiming to win a gold medal in the backstroke at the 2022 Down Syndrome World Swimming Championships. He came out as transgender recently, and makes his debut as a model in "Clothes in Conversation".
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SiThuAung
Born in Myanmar. While studying engineering and business in Singapore, he found interest in fashion and moved to Japan to pursue fashion after graduation. He is currently a student at Bunka Fashion College,coconogacco Advanced Course, and "me", a place to learn about creation. He took part in a joint fashion show at "AREA 3.0" for Rakuten Fashion Week TOKYO.
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AOI YAMADA
Born in 2000. She has appeared in music videos for Nullburich, Kenshi Yonezu, Mari Natsuki, DAOKO, and more, and has performed in Dumb Type's latest stage production "2020" as well as for the fashion brand "ENFOLD" at the Paris Fashion Week. In mid-November, she appeared in "Le Petit Prince - A Letter from Saint-Exupéry". Her vegetable dance, inspired by vegetables which was filmed at her home, has also won much attention.
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Hideki Ichikawa
Born in Yamanashi , Japan in 1987, he began his music career after graduating from college. He worked part-time at a ramen shop for seven years, followed by a job at a set decoration production company. He is currently a member of coconogacco, and is challenging himself with various approaches to fashion, such as making garments using Tyvek and Chinese Noren (traditional fabric), to find an end-result that is different from the conventional form. All of his creative activities are based on the theme, "This world is made up of my prejudices".
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Koichi Omae
A dancer with an artificial leg who lost his left leg in a car accident. He is a professional dancer with a unique style that balances his expression as himself and his expression as the role. He is an image character for Chacott's "Tripure" and is Shinagawa 2020's Sports Ambassador, and has performed in countless stages, received many awards, and appeared in numerous media programs. He is the author of the book "Boku Rashiku Odoru (Dancing Like Myself)" published by Gakken Plus.
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Sari Takikawa
After graduating from an art high school, she worked with an artist/university professor while preparing to apply for art institutes. After quitting to work with the artist, she withdrew from all artistic activities and began to work numerous jobs. She became an employee of an apparel store, but decided to pursue creative arts once again and began attending a fashion college. She then found coconogacco and studied fashion at both schools. She has since dropped out of the fashion college.
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chibiMOEKO
Born in 1995 with achondroplasia and raised in Iwate, Japan. She moved to Tokyo in 2014 to enroll at a technical college, and made her debut as a performer in 2017 featuring her signature hips and super bow legs. She has since appeared in various events, music videos, and films. In 2018, she debuted as Japan's first burlesque dancer as a little person. She is currently striving to bring more excitement to the little people's scene.
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Daichi Tabata
Born in 1989 in Okinawa, Japan. After working in the Ground Self-Defense Force and video production, he began attending coconogaccoin 2017. He expresses his relationship with his family and his experiences in the Self-Defense Force through his garments. He was in charge of costumes for "Roaming Shopping Street Festival" at Festival/Tokyo 19. He was invited to participate in the "1 GRANARY "Designers to Hire 2020".
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Myu Ashihara
She became a wheelchair user due to an accident at the age of 16. She began her career as a model and TV personality in the fall of 2016 after participating in a fashion show aired on NHK. She appears in the official video for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Her perspective has changed from when she was walking to after her accident, and she now tries to break down the barriers between the disabled and able-bodied and the unnecessary stereotypes with the power of entertainment.
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Hana Yagi
Born in Tokyo, Japan, 1999. After graduating from Tokyo Metropolitan Senior High School of Fine Arts, Performing Arts and Classical Music, she continued her studies at coconogacco. In 2019, she was selected as a finalist in the fashion category of ITS (International Talent Support), the largest fashion contest in Europe, as the youngest contestant at the age of 19.
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Makiko Sugawa
Graduated from Kyoto College of Art, Advanced Courses. She has presented solo exhibitions in Japan and abroad and continues her artistic activities. At the Kinokuni Trainart, she painted on the JR Minabe station building and was appointed as the official Artist Stationmaster of West Japan Railway. She is an artificial leg user and has designed costumes for fashion shows featuring artificial legs. She has published several art books including "Lady Amputee in powder Room", "Melting" and "Lace Queen".
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Hiroki Kawai
He has been producing independent films since he was a student. After the 3.11 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, he focused to film musicians, performers and other expressionists to create an archive of "videography" that goes beyond documentation. Occasionally, he has released the works as documentary films. He is active in all aspects of video production, mainly shooting live performances and events. In 2016, he directed and released in BD/DVD format his first live-performance film "Soldier A", featuring Tabito Nanao as a self-defense official killed in action. In 2017, he adapted into a film the performance of "Korvatunturi," the first collaboration between Ameya Norimizu and Yamashita Sumito. His latest film, "Uta no Hajimari (A Beginning of a Song)", a documentary about a deaf photographer Harumichi Saito, has premiered nationwide in 2020.
Uta no Hajimari Official Website -
Yoshikazu Yamagata
He graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2005. While enrolling, he worked as a design assistant to John Galliano. He found his brand writtenafterwards in 2007 and has participated in the Japan Fashion Week since 2008. He won the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix Special Prize in 2014, and was the first Japanese to be selected for the LVMH Prize in 2015. He is the president of coconogacco since 2008, aiming to provide a place to study and research fashion expression. He became the director of "GAKU" in 2020, a new school for teens located on the 9th floor of Shibuya PARCO.
https://www.writtenafterwards.com/ -
coconogacco
The school was founded by Yoshikazu Yamagata in 2008 as a school to learn the essence of fashion. The school held classes in collaboration with the Fashion Department of Central Saint Martins in 2014 for the first time in Japan. In 2019, Yamagata was selected for the BOF 500 curated by Business of fashion. He has produced many designers and artists who are successfully working today.
https://www.coconogacco.com/
Highlights of the Film
Sound Design
We wanted the viewer to use their five senses to feel the garment as more than a visual experience. To do so, we challenged ourselves in the climax scene to create a collaborative work that uses words, sounds, and photographs to express a multilayered scene that conveys the magnetism of the garment.
Musician Shuta Hasunuma recorded the voices of the models, the sounds of the materials used in the garment, and the environmental sounds generated during the shooting to reconstruct a soundscape. This was merged with the documentary photographs by photographer LILY SHU, that brought forth a feeling of accumulating time, a new approach to enjoy fashion. We invite you to experience fashion expressed through an inclusive approach.
Shuta Hasunuma
Born in Tokyo, 1983. He is the organizer of the Shuta Hasunuma Philharmonic Orchestra which has performed concerts in Japan and abroad, and has produced numerous works for film, theater, and other mediums. He has also created video works, sound works, three-dimensional works, and installations, and has shown a number of solo exhibitions. Major solo exhibitions include “〜 ing” (Shiseido Gallery, 2018). He received the 69th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize.
http://www.shutahasunuma.com/
Photography & Composition
LILY SHU has been creating works that focus on physicality and action; on individuality and its relation to other individuals, and the subjectivity and space that lie beyond that. Her photographs capture the allure of the fashion creations by employing various expressions and techniques, while expressing the thought process of the designers and models. We hope you enjoy these imagery that capture the moment when individuality shines.
LILY SHU
Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, 1988. Starting from the bodily existence of an individual, she traces the cosmological approach of space, light, and matter, and works on the theme of the politics of visibility and invisibility, and cross-border imagination.
https://www.lilyshu.com/
Credit
| Designer | Hideki Ichikawa Koki Saito SiThuAung Sari Takikawa Daichi Tabata Hana Yagi |
|---|---|
| Model | AOI YAMADA Myu Ashihara Koichi Omae Kaito Makiko Sugawa chibiMOEKO |
| Planner & Advisor | Yoshikazu Yamagata (coconogacco) |
| Casting | Oi-chan |
| Photography & Composition | LILY SHU |
| Music | Shuta Hasunuma |
| Sound source cooperation | AOI YAMADA |
| Sound engineer | Toshihiko Kasai (studio ATLIO) |
| Filming | Shunsuke Watanabe, Hiroyuki Oumi |
| Director of documentary | Hiroki Kawai |
| Project manager | Mina Jokoji / Sakura Yamamoto Keita Sato (coconogacco) / Momoko Okusa（coconogacco） |
| Producer | Kao Kanamori (DRIFTERS INTERNATIONAL) |
| Presented by | The Nippon Foundation DIVERSITY IN THE ARTS N.P.O. DRIFTERS INTERNATIONAL |
| Co-presented by |    FY2020 Strategic Project to Create Culture and the Arts “Project to Strengthen Earning Capacity of Cultural Arts” |
| With support from | coconogacco, GAKU, B1-A |
