Exhibition Akira Minagawa - minä perhonen

Today I went to the Textile Museum Tilburg (sorry, still no English pages on this site) to see the exhibition minä perhonen. What an inspirational exhibition this was. I met up with a friend and we completely forgot the time going around and inspecting each exhibit closely. There are about 50 outfits on show and all the walls are covered with lots and lots and lots of sample fabrics (woven, embroidered, printed) of about 30x30 cm in size. Apart from the fashion and fabrics there are also design sketches, furniture, furniture fabric and porcelain on show.
His idea of fashion is that it should not be made just for one season but sustainable and lasting. His inspiration comes from nature.

"To me the most important thing is not so much the design, as endowing the fabric with the exhilaration I feel as I sketch" (Akira Minagawa, 2005)

No photos are allowed to be taken so I cannot illustrate this blog entry with pictures. There is no catalogue but the museum has produced a small book: minä perhonen about the Japanese label and its founder Akira Minagawa.

We did not see the videos that are shown, we just run out of time! The exhibition is on until the end of February 2010 and I'm sure I'll be back to see more as there was so much to take in.
I can highly recommend this exhibition!