7. THE Sweater

~ I think that pieces that are difficult to wear are very interesting. ~ Rei Kawakubo 39

THE Sweater:

The earliest clients of Kawakubo and Yamamoto understood that the two designers were not actually “deconstructing” fashion but carefully “constructing” clothes using specially made textiles and design techniques, as opposed to making very precious objects look worn or used. 40 Referring to one of her best-known designs, a black knitted top deliberately woven with holes (see picture), Kawakubo noted:

“The machines that make fabric are more and more making uniform, flawless textures. I like it when something is off - not perfect. Since hand weaving isn’t always possible, we loosen a screw of the machines here and there so they can’t do exactly what they’re supposed to do.” 41

Figure 4. The infamous wool sweater, 1982 : Kawakubo thinks of the fabric with “holes” in it as being a kind of lace. 42

When the sweater is examined in detail, it looks like an amorphous garment - it is full of holes that position it on the verge of imminent disintegration or collapse and it can be worn in any number of ways. The exploration of tension - literally, as in the tension of the particular stitch and emotionally, conscious of knitting’s property / potential to unravel; seems to serve as the primary function of the sweater. The holes disturb the main property of the sweater i.e containing heat. 43

As a knitter myself, this was one of the first images that drew my attention. I was fascinated by how the defects were left on the fabric without being covered up. Holes in knitting imply not only chaos but also order, destruction but also creation, and Kawakubo’s ‘random arrangement’ 44 of the holes raised their significance immensely. But after learning they were knitted on purpose and not natural holes by themselves, I was surprised and left a little disappointed.

39 Marnie Fogg, Why You Can Go Out Dressed Like That: Modern Fashion Explained (Thames & Hudson, 2014), p.174.

40 Marnie Fogg, Why You Can Go Out Dressed Like That: Modern Fashion Explained, p.165.

41 Koren, New Fashion Japan, p.117.

42 Ibid

43 Martin Lambert,, Hilary Alexander, and Provinz Antwerpen, UNRAVEL: Knitwear in Fashion. (Tielt: Lannoo Publishers, 2011), p. 24.

44 Although ‘Random arrangement’ sounds like a paradox, I state this phrase only to point out the metaphor of the holes looking like they were unplanned (random) when they were in fact, positioned to exist as a design element (arrangement).