Japanese designer Kodai Iwamoto is the most recent designer to collaborate with G-Star RAW. Impressed by the historic connection between the Dutch and Japanese, Iwamoto created a lamp constructed from conventional washi paper and infused with denim waste fibres. In 2023, G-Star RAW launched its artwork platform, The Artwork of RAW. The platform permits younger creatives to indicate the infinite prospects of denim by creating artwork objects out of denim waste.
East meets west
Throughout the nineteenth century, items of paper travelled from Japan to the Netherlands, largely used as packaging materials to wrap ceramics. The unfamiliar composition and color scheme of those Ukiyo-e prints impressed artists like Vincent van Gogh. Kodai Iwamoto used the appeal of the paper materials as the place to begin for his artwork object.
Iwamoto infused the washi paper with denim fibres crafted by Japanese manufacturing facility Igarashi Seishi to create a brand-new materials titled ‘UNERI”. Shoji, conventional Japanese doorways constructed from a round picket body, lattice-like framework, and washi paper, impressed the lighting object. This contemporary interpretation fuses conventional craftsmanship with up to date design. The article’s Japanese title interprets to “swelling ocean waves”. That is due to the best way the denim fibres look when blended into the liquid paper.
Japanese design expertise
Kodai Iwamoto (Japan, 1990) studied Product Design at Kobe Design College and École cantonale d’artwork de Lausanne in Switzerland. Based mostly in Tokyo and the Kagoshima prefecture, Iwamoto runs his personal studio. He focuses on bringing collectively contradictions like mass manufacturing and craftsmanship, jap and western tradition, product design and conventional artwork. The designer has gained a number of awards, together with the Younger Japanese Design Expertise Award by ELLE Décor Japan and the Rising Skills Award 2022 by Maison & Objet.
Earlier collaborations
G-Star RAW has created denim artwork items since its begin, with artwork and design being on the core of its DNA. Persevering with its quest to push artistic boundaries, G-Star RAW has collaborated with rising skills on a brand new sequence of artwork objects. Consistent with the model’s accountable initiatives, every artist has been given the liberty to experiment utilizing denim waste or deadstock, creating distinctive items inside their very own self-discipline while upcycling supplies.
Teun Zwets
Teun Zwets (1992) was the primary artist to kick off ‘The Artwork of RAW.’ He created a singular furnishings object, ‘Denim Residing,’ by layering denim waste piece by piece and laminating it with a binder, that includes a lamp, a cabinet and a chair multi functional.
Johanna Seeleman
Johanna Seeleman (1990) is seen as the largest upcoming expertise in up to date design. Along with her five-piece workplace furnishings sequence ‘Potentials’, consisting of a room divider, flooring mat, leaning bench, low stool and valet stand, the German designer used untreated leftover denim. The fabric’s qualities, comparable to stability and texture, span past the clothes context – making it preferrred for furnishings. This design sequence gained the Premiere Classe 2023 x Eyes on Skills Prize.
Nienke Sikkema
Nienke Sikkema (1988) is a famend designer who works intently with the revolutionary Dutch glass artist Bernard Heesen. For ‘The Artwork of RAW,’ Sikkema took inspiration from the Delfts Blauw earthenware, basing her glass designs on its iconic shapes and colors. After making a mould utilizing staple particulars of G-Star denims – like pockets and zipper –, the designer produced a trilogy of vases named ‘Blown In Blue.’
Athena Gronti
Greek designer Athena Gronti (1993) selected to create a big quilt named ‘Ariadne’s Thread’. From tough areas to mushy and complicated stitching and summary shapes, the massive artwork piece goals to convey collectively the sociological paradoxes of denim.
Lenny Stöpp
Lenny Stöpp (1994) produced the furnishings sequence ‘Fluff Stacks’, consisting of a facet desk, stool and lamp. The multidisciplinary artist invented his personal denim recipe by mixing water, starch and denim items in an industrial pulp machine to create a brand-new materials.
Iwan Pol
Iwan Pol (1988) is famend for his work with essentially the most used materials on this planet: concrete. So, it’s no shock the multi-disciplinary designer selected to experiment with denim and concrete. Pol mixed concrete with indigo pigment to seize stills of the denim waste material. The result’s ‘Rockin’ Denim’: a trilogy of objects that showcase the completely different actions of denim.
Pien Submit
Pien Submit (1996) is fascinated with symbols, supplies and objects. Impressed by G-Star’s archive runway items, she created a sequence of seven denim flags, ‘Waving the Denim Flag’. Exploring the idea of unity by flags and denim, each bit options its personal technical experiment. From laser-cutting and warmth press printing to weaving and quilting.
Milou Voorwinden
Textile designer and researcher Milou Voorwinden (1990) is pushed by innovation and discovery, reimagining denim by recycled yarns. Utilizing a jacquard loom, the PhD candidate reconnected with G-Star’s industrial previous and created her artwork piece, ‘Warping Twills’. Continually reinventing conventional methods, the designer has labored with sustainable 3D weaving.
