Clothe Poem: Minä Perhonen’s Exhibition Celebrates Mindful Dressing — Clothe as a Diary to witness our Beings.

When you love your clothes, time flies in any directions. The true sense of timelessness voiced in storytellings where every piece of clothing is always ‘presenting’.

TOKYO — Stepping out of MoT (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo), I felt inspired. A visit to the solo exhibition of a renown Japanese textile brand, Mina Perhonen: つづく (Continue) had left me lingered with an interesting concept where Past, Present, and Future can be democratised.

A passage of time was manifested through Akira Minakawa (designer)’s collections. Not through displaying, as the clothes were presented in a non-chronological order, but through the tale of delicately designed patterns, fabric sourcing, long processes of printing, cuttings, and making into clothes.

Walking through the exhibition, room by room and without being told, I could feel the ‘time’ was twisted. The concept of timelessness was well-curated that it’s like I was riding on Doraemon’s time-machine, peeking into the past, the future, and the present…as if there was no time at all.

Mina Perhonen’s Collections displayed in non-chronological order.

Future in the PRESENT

“Whenever we go out and buy clothes, how far are we thinking into the future after purchases?” — Mina Phehonen: つづく

Mina Perhonon is the brand for everyday living. Many parts of its exhibition showed its concern towards the longer lifespan of its clothes where the brand’s pieces weren’t designed only for ‘today’ usage in this era where fast consumption seems to be normal. Minakawa emphasises the idea of having emotional attachment on clothes can make us not to throw them away easily in one room, and embraces the concept of upcycled leftover clothes and materials for making new designs in the other.

remain clothes from the stock were used to design home decor, stationery, and accessories.

leftover shreds of papers were used as parts of elements to create new designs by tracing.

shreds of leftover fabrics used for Mina Perhonen’s Patchwork Bag collection.

Patchwork Stones made from leftover fabrics.

Past in the PRESENT

“We aim to produce clothes that do not lose their appeal over time; Fashion that stays, grows, and changes with us over the course of many years, and eventually become a part of us.” — Mina Perhonen: つづく

Without concerning about ‘fashion’ and ‘trends’, every Mina Perhonen’s fabric pattern was developed from sketches to simply tell stories. And storytellings have no obsolete date. Some of the design were constructed from paintings, drawings, and some from paper cuttings.

A room displayed the brand’s design ideas from scratches. (photo credit: Wallpaper*)

A pattern that was designed from rubber stamping. It was then screen printed onto fabric on the later process.

As the brand’s aim is to encourage its customers to consciously wear their clothes, they inspire them to tell their own personal relationship with the clothes too, through stories. One of the exhibition room dedicates for customers’ clothes and memories they recall when seeing, feeling, smelling, or wearing them.

‘Feelings’ that we as human beings have for our clothes can simply be the power to enforce us to enduring their lifespans, and care for them as beings in a spiritual level rather than just material beings. To me, this magical force simply comes from the ‘value’ we have towards ourselves, our memories, and our beings.

‘Memories of Clothes’ — Mina Perhonen:つづく (photo credit: Wallpaper*)

A coat that reminds the love of a Mum to a baby daughter.

A skirt to calm down a bride-to-be and to remind her to go with the flow.

A skirt to witness the love at first sight, and to bring out self-love and confidence.

A dress to remind to the moment of embrace.

This room handed me with the most emotive feeling. Apart from the way they are curated, the idea that each clothes have personal memories in some sense gave me the feeling that they all have souls. They are not only Mina Perhonen products, but they are evidence of the life of their owners.

For me, this is the power of materialism — it has the ability to shape feelings, emotions, moments, and stories into concrete forms. To bring about the past senses into the present. To show that memories that were happened were ‘truth’ in some way. To celebrate the stories that already happened, and to celebrate the change that is to come. To celebrate life, while ‘continue’ living.

Mina Perhonen’s Solo Exhibition concept: TSUZUSU — demonstrates the continuity of the brand and connectivity of all beings in the planet Earth ecosystem that is endless. (photo credit: MoT)

BEING PRESENT

Surprisingly, the concept of time is relative so much to Self and Consciousness. With time, we can sense our ‘being’ at the presenting moment. And with time, we can distinguish the touch of the clothes we are wearing from the imagination of it.

While this exhibition provided us with a bridge to timelessness; where the joy of telling past memories of our clothes and the aspiring thoughts for wearing it again in the future can meet in the present moment, being itself was so much mesmerising and fun that we could enjoy every moment as if losing our way in Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole.

‘Being present’ — this initial thought made me looked down onto the clothes I am wearing that day to the gallery, and ‘at the moment’ I felt the love I have for my clothes even more.

Mina Perhonen’s pattern

“Not distinguish between the latest fashion and clothes of the past but consider all to be of equal value. Just like tree of different kinds and ages exist next to one another and form one ecosystem within the nature evironment of a forest, garments from different eras mingle in concert of colour, patterns, and shapes that reverberate with each other” — Mina Phehonen: つづく

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