ミナを着て旅に出よう。

My first attempt to complete an illustration using hand-stitch method... and I almost died from stitching! It's therapeutic to do stitching but not when you are rushing for deadline. :-/

ミナを着て旅に出よう (wearing Mina and go traveling) is the title of a book I read long ago. It's written by Akira Minagawa, who is the designer behind the fashion brand, Mina Perhonen. The book was basically about how he turned himself from a long distance runner to a part-timer in the fish market and finally a fashion designer. In the fish market, he observed life and got inspired. Akira Minagawa puts simple motifs which you can find in everyday life onto fabrics. He is a fashion designer with the spirit of a long distance runner, who believes in making fashion that has stamina to cross through lapse of time without losing its charm.

I wonder why most fashion only focus the beauty and vibrancy on the young ones while the old ones seems to be neglected most of the time. To me, an elderly like my grandmother, who is a long distance runner in her own journey of life, deserves wearing Mina Perhonen with long distance runner's spirit. What you see on the canvas is a picture I took of my grandmother on a trip to the southern part of the world. The first picture that captured her laughing so happily hard.

This piece is my latest personal artwork for a group show curated by OIC:

IDOLISM X OIC X A CURIOUS TEEPEE

Opening Launch: Thursday 5th May 2011, 7.30pm to 9.30pm

A tweed jacket, lobster claw heels, four little white stitches, a red gown…Iconography that has been etched into our psyche wittingly (and unwittingly) through the delirious world of fashion.

For this exhibition, illustrators draw inspiration from these objects of desire and their inventors, creating original artworks in the process. Using different mediums, participating artists include Mindflyer, Mr B, Fleecircus, Sokkuan, Cherie The Mrr, Eeshaun, AnnGee, SanSan, Noreen, Fei, Miel, Annie Tan, Twisstii and Mriz Sidah just to name a few. With varying backgrounds and styles, from political cartoons, to abstract surrealism, several take their first foray into fashion as subject matter.

With the inaugural Singapore Men’s Fashion Week just past and the upcoming Audi Fashion Festival this May, A Curious Teepee and OIC aim to convey another side of fashion, as seen through the eyes and hands of an artist.

All artworks are on display and available for sale till Sunday 22nd May at A Curious Teepee, 12pm to 9pm daily.