A visit with VISVIM’s Hiroki Nakamura in his Paris Showroom inside a tepee

Baby blanket inspiration
Hand loomed baby blanket was the inspiration for VISVIM 2012/13 knits

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I'd wished I'd had my FLIP with me today but I left it with Rain at Bernhard Willhelm's show. For the uninitiated, VISVIM is a Japanese luxury street brand designed by Hiroki Nakamura. Every textile and every technique has a subtle way of hiding the technical aspects so that the garments look old world. Nakamura approaches his craft as if it were a religion. He has enormous appreciation for old tried and true techniques that have nearly disappeared. He revives them and brings them fast forward into the new millennium. In a time of fast fashion, VISVIM is the leader in SLOW fashion.  He enjoys taking long journeys to find the true artisans, take for instance the research that went into finding the man that treats the buckskin and built this amazing tepee, there is no pattern and nothing is wasted, even the tendons are utilized. 

Inside tepee
Hiroki Nakamura in his sheepskin coat inside the majestic tepee which can be constructed by a single person.

I was invited to do the interview inside of the tepee surrounded by a circle of grass. This is probably as close to nature as I've been in a while. Each section of the tepee is made of an entire skin, tendons and all. 

The hand made tepee

This tepee is going to be transported and installed in Bergdorf Goodmans in NYC.
Hiroki in his sheepskin coat
Hiroki in his sheepskin coat, you can order it and live inside it, super warm and comfortable. While I was there three different clients tried it on. 

Wouldn't you like to own a hand knit cotton sweaters made by a French Grandmother that, even if you did not have one, would make you feel loved as if you did. Some of the silver buttons are made out of vintage coins and others are collected in Nakamura's travels. I don't have any images of the shoes but some of them have little Africian  beads on them and some have soles made out of latex. VISVIM has a policy with the shoes, if the soles wear out you can bring them back and they will be replaced.

Hand knit sweater france grannies
Hand knit sweaters made in France by Grannies

http://visvim.tv/

Later,

Diane

P.S. For those of you attending ASVOFF Barcelona,

Visvim Dissertation on Permeation: Harmony Versus Convergence by Hiroki Nakamura (25 minutes) will be screened at CaixaForum, it is Hiroki's directorial debut.

 

mm
Diane Pernet

A LEGENDARY FIGURE IN FASHION and a pioneer of blogging, Diane is a respected journalist, critic, curator and talent-hunter based in Paris. During her prolific career, she designed her own successful brand in New York, costume designer, photographer, and filmmaker.

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