{"id":2037,"date":"2013-01-21T20:31:06","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/?p=2037"},"modified":"2017-06-19T22:43:39","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T20:43:39","slug":"kolor-liquid-pragmatism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/2037\/kolor-liquid-pragmatism\/","title":{"rendered":"Kolor: Liquid Pragmatism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photography<\/a>
Photography by Johan Sandgerg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The clothes that Junichi Abe creates under the label Kolor have a magnificent just-rolled-out-of-bed quality. They are crumpled, lived-in and perfectly imperfect, and come in cocooning shapes that are as comfortable as they are precise. Trousers are loose, with raw hemlines that can dangle down or roll up; outerwear has the softness of knitwear; precious details\u2014embroidery, frills, a satin ribbon\u2014pop up on utilitarian pieces, adding nuance. A jacket starts life on top as a woolen bomber, only to morph halfway down into something else, and end up at the bottom as a cardigan. A knitted piece is treated as a tailored one. Colors are dense yet watery, like a gouache with a hint of fragility. There is a sense of endless morphing to Abe\u2019s modular wardrobe, the kind of hazy fluidity that you might get when you are half asleep and cannot decide whether you\u2019re in the real world or still in the realm of dreams.
\n\u201cI am inspired by the accumulation of feelings of everyday life,\u201d Abe says laconically. He launched Kolor in 2004 after working for nearly five years for Junya Watanabe. \u201cLightness, softness, the thinness of the textile, volume, fits and cuts of the garments, proportion and constitution of the fastenings, the degree of stiffness and flexibility of the interfacings, whether a garment should be tumble-dried or air-dried: all these elements have to be precisely thought-out and considered in order for me to proceed with my work,\u201d he continues. The approach is hands-on, the process experimental and the results intensely utilitarian, albeit in an off-kilter kind of way.
\nAbe has the rare ability to let experimentalism disappear into garments that look surprisingly simple, with a hint of brutalism and wabi-sabi (as in \u201cnothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect\u201d). Nothing screams \u201cdesigner\u201d, though it is actually based on a radical reassessment of proportion and fabrication. The notion of the sartorial hybrid is central for Abe, who says, \u201cEven with a plain fabric, we can process yarn before weaving it into a cloth, or we can change the texture by changing its final process. Therefore, if it is hybrid material, I think there is much more possibility for it.\u201d
\nAbe is also interested in continuity\u2014evolution over seasonal revolution. \u201cTo me, the significance of designing is not something that needs a concept,\u201d he explains. \u201cHaving a concept is useful only if it is a way to get a design answer. Having different concepts each season doesn\u2019t have much meaning for me while I am creating something.\u201d Abe has no interest in shocking people with what they have never seen. \u201cDesigning like that is too simple,\u201d he says matter-of-factly. Kolor is about subtlety: a constant rearranging of a given set of elements into endless permutations. \u201cEvery season, I start from the same point,\u201d he says. \u201cWhy am I doing this job? What does it mean? Even though I never find the final answer, I start from these questions and then find along the way what I should do. For me, fashion is a way to reconsider and rethink myself. I sometimes feel that the idea of \u2018classic\u2019 is useful to show people a new feeling. What I would like to express through my collection is a vague nuance or mood which is uncertain and hazy.\u201d He certainly delivers. Kolor is pragmatic dressing for, in the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman\u2019s description, a world of liquid modernity.<\/p>\n

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\"Photography <\/a>
Photography by Johan Sandgerg <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
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[br]<\/p>\n

Originally published in Dapper Dan issue 6, October 2012. All clothes Kolor; PhotoGRaPhY bY johan sandbeRG; fashion bY Rossana Passalaqua; PhotoGRaPheR\u2019s assistant niccol\u00f2 Pacilli; fashion assistant Giulia di Giannantonio; GRoominG bY maRco bRaca at atomo manaGement; imaGe develoPinG at uPstudio milano; modelled bY PhotoGRaPheR Remi desclaux; castinG bY alexandRa sandbeRG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The clothes that Junichi Abe creates under the label Kolor have a magnificent just-rolled-out-of-bed quality. They are crumpled, lived-in and perfectly imperfect, and come in cocooning shapes that are as comfortable as they are precise. Trousers are loose, with raw hemlines that can dangle down or roll up; outerwear has the softness of knitwear; precious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[33,38],"class_list":["post-2037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-06","tag-fashion","tag-interviews"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QZgE-wR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2037"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2050,"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions\/2050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dapperdanmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}