nippori

If you are a regular reader here, I’m sure you’ve heard me mention　”Nippori” a lot. That’s where the wholesale fabric district in Tokyo. Many of the stores sell fabrics at wholesale prices, but have been made available for regular customers. I strongly recommend stopping by there if you have a chance to visit Japan.

Anyway, while shopping there, I saw a poster about the Nippori Fashion Design Contest, where armature designers submit their designs for a runway show competition. It’s like a one-time Project Runway contest. This year’s theme was “street wear”. By the time I saw the poster, the submission due date had been passed so I couldn’t enter, but there were tickets available to see the final contestants’ designs on  a run way type of show. So I asked for a pass, and I got one:)

Last Wednesday was the show. I asked Zhing from Little Projects in Style to go to the show together and she agreed 🙂

Here is Zhing…

I was so impressed by the drawings! These were the contestants who were selected out of 1000+ people who applied.  I really need to learn how to put my designs on paper. Can anyone recommend a good website or book(s) where I can learn this?

Lot of creative & innovative designs… Aside from the issue of whether they are actually wearable, these garments were  fun to look at, and I enjoyed learning how these designers conceived their pieces and then how they translated them to the runway.

The MC said this garment was made for pregnant women as a “protective shell” from society.

This reminds me of a clothes from the book “Pattern Magic“.

This is something that I would actually wear. The color and drape are beautiful. 

Reminds me of a fairy in the woods.

This was inspired by a rain drop. Cute.

The inspiration of this dress comes from Origami. Isn’t this so interesting? If this is made of some soft, drapy fabric (not a bumble bee fabric!), I think this can be wearable!

The event had two parts, one was the Nippori collection by armature designers, and the other was “Dalian collection”. Dalian is the Chinese sister city of Nippori, and the models and clothes traveled from China for the show. The models are from a model school in China, and they were pretty. However, the show itself was bad. Some of the items were poorly executed, and the presentation was bad. The plastic bra straps were showing. In one garment, the skirt slit was so high that I could see the model’s butt cheeks! Last few pieces of the Dalian show were ugly prom dresses. They were not only ugly but looked like cheap rental dresses! I wasn’t sure what that was about. I didn’t even snap any photos because they were not picture worthy..

Anyway, the event was fun, and we got to shop at fabric shops too!