Akira Minagawa

A STRING OF MOMENTS, 2001 – 09
5 dresses

All the future is coming from the past. ‘The past’ and ‘the future’, the two are inseparable/adjoining. We just continue to accumulate our design for the future: a string of moments will make a life of design. All the dresses shown here are accumulated designs of Minä Perhonen.

bouncy: 09SS
Dynamic bouncing circles passing by the sky. Birds flying among the clouds of bouncing circles.

forest parade: 05SS
A bunch of motifs hang from the textile. The forest’s 37 inhabitants en masse; birds, flowers, branches, the word PEACE. To date, our most complicated and labour-intensive embroidered lace.

full moon: 08SS
Leather textile with shell work. Shell is sliced very thin, shaped into a circle, and then is stuck onto leather. The leather with shells is cut into yarns of about 2-mm widths, and will make a woven textile. In the woven textile, the circles of the shells will appear again. Full moon on the darkest night.

soda water: 01SS
This is also called “not dot.” Despite the lack of a single separate circle, the eye perceives a collection of circles. An experiment in polka dot design.

tambourine: 01AW
Tiny dots gather to form rings. Hand-drawn slight unevenness is expressed in plump embroidery lace. This design became a Mina Perhonen standard. The dress is made of patchwork with textile of the “tambourine,” silk ribbons, black velvet, etc.

Akira Minagawa

Manager and Chiefdesigner at ”Mina Perhonen”
Graduated from Bunka Fashion College
Established the fashion brand ”Mina Perhonen”, 1995
Minagawa was awarded “Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix”, Tokyo, 2006
Invited to exhibit on several museum projects worldwide