LCF Graduates 2010: Naoya

Haus Digital takes a look at the upcoming talent coming out of London College of Fashions 2010 graduate shows.

Naoya Nakayama uses words to inspire his work, and what work it is. Using uneven sided tailoring and luscious material, Naoya has got it all covered. His unusual and extraordinary graduate collection encompasses his many inspirations and life experiences.

Here, he tells us more about where he grew up, what made him love fashion and why he’s not going to start a business just yet…

First of all, tell us a little about yourself… Where should I start?

My name is Naoya Nakayama. I was born in 1988. I’m from south parts of Japan, not from Tokyo, from countryside call Kochi.I grew up in countryside. I started to go to clam school of arts when I was 16, I studied academic drawing and a bit of design drawing. I moved to London when I was 18 to study fashion design. I joined the foundation course at London College of Fashion after I finish foundation course. I entered BA fashion design technology Womenswear course in London College of Fashion, and now, I am graduating from there.

Have you always been interested in fashion?

I used to like wearing interesting clothes but I was not into making my own stuff by myself. I was into drawing. I used to draw in high school every single day. (Teacher’s tried to force me study but they gave up in the end ). I do not remember when I started to draw fashion design. I would draw with my own ideas without noticing. Since then, I have been drawing fashion illustrations and then my interest in fashion became deeper. I started to think what would I do if I were a designer when I was looking designers collections from some fashion magazines. My fashion interest started from drawing.

What made you want to design, and be behind the process of fashion?

Everything I see in everyday life. People, culture, music, history… I want to produce something people need whilst mixing in my creativity. Another reason why I use fashion design to present my idea is fashion will always belong to all human beings. The distance of fashion and people is really close. People can not live without wearing clothes in their life. Clothes are one of the things people need every day. Also, there is another reason I design clothes. Every season a designer presents a collection, then people look and buy the clothes, style themselves, and wear them in their way. When clothes are the customers own, they wear clothes from designers in a very different way from what the designer expects to see. The creation process does not end after the designer shows a collection, it will be continued by the people who own them. They will style and find more way to represent their personalities. It would be just fantastic for me that if I could be the one who can be a trigger for whole of this process. How would you describe your work? My work has always been presented by mixing different objects. This time was mixing ZAHA HADID architect design as the detail with classic mackintosh coat. I always take something unusual for fashion in to my design.

What are your main inspirations/inspirations for your graduate show?

The main inspiration for this graduate show is “a frozen moment of the object’s creation and destruction process.” I was inspired by the 3D artworks called “Frion Estudio del Desastre (by Los Canpiteros 2005)”, they represented the moment of mural destruction process with hanging a lot of small broken bricks from the ceiling. “The molecule unites with the molecule and it becomes a material” This was also one of my main ideas for my collection. I took these two ideas as a main inspiration.

Your graduate collection used tailoring with uneven sides, do you think this will always be the case for your work?

No, I do not think so. I took this way to present my collection this time, because I thought those two details you mentioned were the best way to show my inspirations. As I mentioned that my main inspirations are “a frozen moment of the object’s creation and destruction process.” and “The molecule unites with the molecule and it becomes a material”. During the design development process of my graduate collection, during which I was sampling, I was struggling to take my inspiration into my collection. The sample looked too conceptual. Too many details were going on, so I got back to my first research again and found the classic mackintosh coat, from one of the books. Then I found a way of mixing futuristic detail into classic clothes. I think this way made my collection really clean and beautiful and this is the reason why I used these details.

I love the accessories you did for your show; do you think you would ever focus more on accessories than the clothes?

Thank you. The accessories came out great. I am not sure if I will focus more on accessories than the clothes, but I would love to continue designing accessories when I do my next collection.

What do you think about fashion at the moment- is there anything missing from your point of view?

Fashion has moved on to different stage where there are lot of changes going on. Credit crunch, few famous maisons closed down, remarkable designer passed away, and the huge development of fast fashion industry… it is different from what we used to see. The customers have more choices at brand level, price range… it became more difficult to present a conceptual collection for young designer. However, in my opinion, this difficult situation is a great chance for all of young designers. Fashion is always changing anyway. What we need to work on is ascertain to extent and how effectively our collection are responding to costumers needs.

You studied at LCF, do you think this is a good university for womenswear?

Yes, it was good for me. I think it really depend on students. A creative person can be creative anywhere. It was really good for me to study at LCF. I got some really good supports at learning process. classmate, tutors…. Everyone at university has their own creativity and they work hard to represent their collection. It was great to see how people from different countries think and design. It was also amazing that I could study with them and learn from them.

How did you feel after your show?

I felt happy for graduating and felt a little bit scared for my next step but I also feel excited to start my career.

Would you ever do menswear?

I would love to do menswear some day, but I want to focus on womenswear now.

Who are your favourite designers?

Maison Martin Margiela Hussein Chalayan Marc Jacobs Raf Simons Jonathan Saunders.

Do you read magazines? And, if so, do they inspire you?

Yes I do. They give me a thread to get an idea. it really rare for me to inspired from magazine.

What kind of person are you- shy or extrovert?

I think I am shy person.

Do you have any hobbies?

Painting.

Do you worry that in the current climate it is risky to start a business?

Even if it were not risky to start a business, I would not start it. I felt myself that there are number of things I need to develop and also there are more thing I have never seen in the fashion industry. I would love to work and study to develop my understanding and design skill.

Where do you see yourself, and your work, in three years time?

Hopefully, I will be working for one of the designer who I mentioned as my favourite designers. I want to be prepared to show more and more different collection with different ideas and new techniques.