#41　違和感を置き直す

私にとってデザインは、「違和感」を、自分にとって自然な位置へ置き直していくことなのだと思います。

自分にとって最初の違和感を考えてみると、自分の話せる言葉で想いがうまく伝わらないということだった気がします。

「ちゃんと話さなきゃ」と考えるほど、自分の言葉が間違っているような気がして、うまく話せなくなる。
無意識のうちに「こうあるべき」や「正解」を意識して、自分自身を窮屈にしていたのだと思います。

だからなのか、人や物事に一つの「正解」を決めつけることは、あまりしたくありません。

服のどこまでをデザイナーが決め、どこからを着る人に委ねるのか。
そのバランスを考えることも、私にとってデザインの一部です。

服にはたくさんの役割や決まりがあります。
でも、服と人との間には、ときどき違和感が生まれます。
私はそこを面白いと感じます。

一つの「正解」に身体や人を合わせるのではなく、着る人によって「正解」が動いていく服をつくりたい。

自由であることが不安で、たくさんの選択肢があるより、「今日はこれ」と決めてもらいたい日もある。
そんな時には、服の側が答えを提示してくれてもいい。

決めることと、委ねること。
ほどくことと、結び直すこと。

その少し面倒で、楽しい繰り返しが、私にとって服をつくることなのだと思います。

For me, design is about taking a sense of dissonance and placing it somewhere that feels more natural to me.

But what is that sense of dissonance?

When I think back to where it first began for me, I think it was the feeling that the words I had were somehow not enough to express what I truly wanted to say.

The more I thought, “I have to say this properly,” the more I felt as though my own words might be wrong, and the harder it became to speak.

Without realizing it, I had become too conscious of how things “should be” and of finding the “right” answer, making myself feel constrained.

Perhaps that is why I do not want to define a single “right” answer for people or things.

How much should a designer decide, and how much should be left to the person wearing the clothes?

Thinking about that balance is also part of design for me.

Clothing comes with many roles and rules. But sometimes, a sense of dissonance emerges between the clothes and the person wearing them. I find those moments interesting.

Rather than asking a body or a person to conform to a single “right” answer, I want to make clothes in which that answer can shift depending on the person wearing them.

Sometimes freedom itself can feel uncertain. There are days when, rather than having endless possibilities, we simply want something to tell us, “This is it for today.” On those days, perhaps the clothes themselves can offer an answer.

Deciding and leaving room.

Unraveling and tying things together again.

That slightly complicated, yet joyful process of repeating these gestures is, for me, what it means to make clothes.