
Canadian Press: Japanese designer brings vacuum cleaners to the catwalk in Paris
Dai Fujiwara became the first fashion designer to draw inspiration from a vacuum cleaner, collaborating with British inventor James Dyson to produce a whirlwind display of gently wafting dresses and billowing coats at the Paris ready-to-wear shows Tuesday. The creative director of the Japanese label Issey Miyake enlisted Dyson to produce a set featuring huge yellow tubes that sent gusts of air swirling through models' hair and clothes in a poetic reflection on global climate change. "I don't care about the concept that this area is fashion, this area is home product," Fujiwara told The Associated Press. "He thinks about making life better through his work. All of us at Issey think the same way - making good clothes, that's all"...For this collection, he took apart Dyson vacuum cleaners and incorporated their components into his designs, adding a circular pocket to a coat or wrapping a tubular belt around a dress. "I was astonished and fascinated," Dyson told The AP of seeing the outfits. "It's very interesting to see what someone else sees in what you've done. Everything in my vacuum cleaner is there for a reason - air flow, whatever it is - and so it was fascinating to see someone looking at it and seeing just shapes"...more...