First of all, how did "vetement" become "saintvetement"?
Looking back at my career, in my twenties, I was designing clothes for the working class, in other words uniforms. At that time, I devoted myself to the beauty in our everyday lives and the beauty of collectivity. I was swept away by the beauty of clothes that prioritized function, the traditional and minimal approaches, which are the very basics of designing fashion. Then my aesthetic senses became more decorative and soon wanted to create a store that was more semi-couture. It was a time when mass-production in East Asia was becoming standardized, but
I could never feel at ease because
I realized that I wanted to design clothes that were more personal, and that is how "vetement" started. However, due to my incompetence, problems surfaced in all sorts of areas that could not be solved, and left me no choice but to quit.
How did you feel when you decided to take a break?
Of course it was very unfortunate, but at the same time, how I felt about creating something had been reset. I became honest, and perhaps healthy. I was able to see matters in a much simpler way and stopped reaching out beyond what I could handle. It was not my intention to create clothes that were to be consumed by the mass, so I planned of a business model that concluded with the smallest units. This model is often seen in retail businesses, the second floor being the living space and the first floor as the store. Of course, attending customers to everything else was managed by a total of just two persons.
How did you spend the 3 years after quitting vetement and starting saintvetement?
It was necessary to learn and practice mass-production and mass-
consumption, so during those 3 years, I spent much of my time doing that and thinking of a new concept for saintvetement.
Actually, to tell you the truth, I'm thinking of not coming up with a season concept for a while. That's because for now, I want to concentrate on the idea of "Clothes made and sold in a store where the designer lives." The store itself is quite small but with an extensive concept, so I want to take extra care for it to grow. If I had to declare a concept, it would be "hand-craftsmanship." It is one of the most essential qualities of saintvetement, as a process of not being rationalized.
How did you come up with the style of putting all together your living space, atelier, and the store?
The integration of one's living and work, was one of the apparatuses that I wanted to actualize in order to define "the minimum design necessary." It's a challenge as to how fulfilled my life and work would be with the smallest business scale. Perhaps something significant would come out of it, or perhaps I may be better off without it. As a common creator, it is also a means of presenting clothes all together with the surrounding space. It's a place where people can see the starting point of what a designer considers design, and the process of clothes being materialized can be directly felt.
Balance and rhythm are two qualities that I consider of great importance. My job is how to sort out the mass of information, just like a composer writes music. The amount of information may be enormous, but the number of keyboards are limited, thus, in what order they are played becomes the new balance and creates a new rhythm. Infinite numbers of samples are created within the mind, and few of those happen to be what I find pleasing. My approach to creating clothes is always the same. I create things that should be changed, and I respect those that shouldn't.
It's been a few months since the store has been opened, how do you feel?
I'm working as a sales clerk. Design that's born from seeing and experiencing the market that only exists between the customer and the sales clerk is truly honest, and I really enjoy that. The essence of retail business is to directly feel the customer's desires and disappointments toward the designs
I propose. Perhaps, most of what
I had known up to now, had just been data. Perhaps, I didn't know a thing at all. I wake up in the morning, get dressed, eat my breakfast, and check the day's schedule. I go up to the atelier on the second floor to work, and am greeted with a hello by two complete strangers. It's very strange at first but they're customers. It's obvious because I made a "store where the designer lives." Normally, it's unimaginable to think of strangers in my house without an appointment, but I've come to think that's not such a bad environment for creating my designs.
2007年3月 サンヴェットモンアトリエにて / March 2007, saintvetement atelier
The debut collection of 2002 Spring/Summer was in one way for Mizuno to return to the roots of himself and focused on the time around he was born, 1968. The keyword is "Woodstock." The image was taken after the legendary event of "Woodstock; Music and Art Festival 3 days of Peace&Music" the compilation of the 60’s counterculture and hippie movements.Multi-color flower motifs represented by the flower children, vivid colors without any impurity. It was no doubt a powerful collection, light and cheerful, filled with much color.
The brand's name "vetement" is French for "clothes."
2002A/W
中世ヨーロッパの農民と貴族/
Medieval European peasants and nobles
2002 Autumn/Winter collection was
a complete change from the pure impressions of the last collection, and set forth the ennui mature senses. Mizuno emphasized the handcrafts of a craftsman.
Design images elaborated from the concept, "mass-production of hand crafted clothes." How much the warm handcrafts of a working-class (peasant) could be leveled to the sophisticated dresses of the nobles, was the theme of the collection. Mizuno was particular about "handcraft" from the material. Quilt linen made by washed linen filled with cotton, and sweaters knitted by crochet-hooks from yarns that looked like they were left around the house.
The warmness of the materials and the irregular hand stitches were tailored into luxurious dresses by
a remarkable silhouette. The body line was emphasized by placing volume in the bottom with a waist-mark and lots of flare.
Everyday clothes transforms into
a dress with just one piece of string.....
In order to directly communicate the attitude towards designing fashion, 2003 Spring/Summer collection got rid of color and challenged the theme "Dress" with just one color, black. The items were very simple everyday clothes, such as jeans jacket, trench coat, and dress.
However with just a simple process of tightening with a piece of string, everyday clothes instantly transforms into dress-wear. With the string untied and loose, the design is very ordinary, a prototype for clothes without much eccentricity. The materials of the strings are mainly cotton, intentionally chosen to be simple. Nearly 40 meters of string was used for one piece of clothing, and was wrapped around like veins. Over 100 changeovers, circular and crosswise, were dynamically cut, and when the strings were put through, it not only created a tight form, but the fabric showed multifarious expressions. Once the string was loosened, the dress turned back to its original form, and it was possible to adjust the shapes as one pleased.
It was a proposal of a new dress-style.
"Tartan" was a familiar pattern for Mizuno who had been in the field of uniform design. From the experience of being surrounded by hundreds of tartan check patterns, Mizuno proposed new interpretations to the well-known pattern as the theme of the 2003 Autumn/Winter collection.
The typical pattern of tartan is a plain fabric layered with checked patterns and expressed with the texture of the fabric, the essence bring dignity. Volume is created by rolling up the fabric with a big safety pin. Eight checkered cloth are layered to gather the drapes to create thickness. Tartan fabrics are topped with patterned patchworks of the same fabric. Some items are made from over one hundred parts. What Mizuno emphasized was to "layer" and "add" the patterns.
"Handcraft" is the underlying essence of creating clothes. To make the complicated constructed parts look three-dimensional, tucks and gathers were often used. It not only dignified and emphasized the tartan patterns;
it helped to keep in the human warmth in to the woven patterns. Tradition and revolution, flexibility and strength, soft and hard.....
These contrary words were unified into one piece of clothing (vetement) by the hands of the designer.
In a time of simple and minimal trends, the collection pursued into the opposite direction and created an original decorative world.
