Inspiration and Creative Processes

I'm often asked where I get my ideas from, and what inspires me to create. When I tell people that I love Japanese popular culture and fashion, people automatically think of Kimonos, Geshias and green tea. However, there is so much more to Japanese culture than that these days.

First and foremost I am always inspired by my fabric choices. When I see a certain print, I start to visualise it as something else. I always seem to get my main inspiration from the print and colour. Then I begin to experiment with different shapes and curves, and somehow a bag is born! I didn't realise how difficult it actually is to describe your creative process until I actually sat down and tried to write this.

To help illustrate what I am trying to say, I wanted to share with you one of my favourite designers, Akira Minagawa, and his label Mina perhonen. His designs epitomise what I love about fashion; playful use of colour, print and shape.

I love this bird bag, so cute, and the way the feathers are leaves is really clever, like a bird in a tree. I love the print of the dress as well.

I currently love bows. My latest bag design features a large bow on the front and I've been thinking about using them elsewhere in my work. I love how they have created a bow necklace here, a simple and sweet design.

Another great, simple use of embelishments on this dress. A classic fabric rose. They are used frequently throughout the mina collections.

I love the simplicity of this dress, and the bold use of colour. I also like the contrast of this blue with the yellow leather of the bird bag. This colour combination is reflected in my blue bow bag.

Birds are a prominent motif throughout the Mina collections, and I noticed today how almost every fabric I've used lately has a bird motif on it!

I think I love Mina because of the use of patterns and the avant-garde feel to the collections. When making bags, you can put colours and shapes together that you wouldn't necessarily use in clothing and I love to take inspiration from avant-garde designers and experiment with something new.