Fashion experts say that all color is present somewhere in nature. Japanese clothing designer Issey Miyake took that to heart while designing his Spring 2009 collection. He sent his creative direct, Dai Fujiwara, on an expedition to the Amazon rainforest to capture the exact color palette of the jungle to be used in his next collection.
Fujiwara and his team took thousands of color fabric swatches into the Amazon on the color hunting expedition and tested them against the flowers, river, mud, bark, and leaves. Their method of testing a color swatch’s authenticity was this: if the color melted away when placed over nature’s backdrop, rather than calling attention to itself, it was a genuine color of the forest.
While speaking at the Design Indaba Conference, a world renown design event, Fujiwara shared with the audience his surprise in the colors they found on the color hunting expedition to the Amazon. Expecting to find bold and bright colors, the palette they discovered was softer, brimming with muted tones instead.
These pieces from the Spring 2009 Issey Miyake collection showcase the rich colors of the Amazon rainforest, reminiscent of the vines and flowing water found in the jungle they were inspired by.
The Issey Miyake Spring 2009 collection got this attention at Paris Fashion Week.
The fashion design industry is abounding with creativity, allowing designers and their teams to integrate unique and compelling ideas in their creations. If you are an artistic individual that loves color, fashion, design, and originality, consider a fashion design career today! Who knows, the next time we hear of a fashion designer doing a color hunting expedition in an exotic part of the world for their next collection, it could be led by you.
