Atlas of Fashion Designers

201

Fukuko Ando

Fukuko Ando

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If one word could encapsulate the work of this Japanese designer, it would be “poetry”:

poetry in the way she creates her garments, beginning with the sensation that the textures

of the fabrics produce in her fi ngertips; poetry in the way she extracts from her materials

diff erent modes of covering a model while utilizing volumes in the creation of a dress as if

she were fashioning a work of pottery.

After completing her studies in literature, she decided to enroll as a fashion design student

at the Mode Gakuen vocational school in Nagoya. She later continued her design training

at the renowned Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, with the goal of understand-

ing Western body forms. And there’s no doubt she was successful in this endeavor, as the

work of this personal and intimate designer with such big-name fi rms in French fashion as

Christian Dior and Christian Lacroix makes undoubtedly clear.

From these masters she learned the secrets of haute couture, which she then applied to her

own vision of fashion. For Fukuko Ando, the creative process signifi es an immersion in her

own subjective world, a kind of ceremony that involves making garments on a model in

front of a mirror so that she can see the evolution of the dress from all perspectives, thereby

creating clothes that respect the shape of the human fi gure.

She is a clear example that the world of fashion refl ects not only the spirit of the times but

also a personal vision and way of understanding beauty, establishing a dialogue with the

fabric on the changing and movable surface of the human form.

Photography by Luigi Migani

202

Fukuko Ando

Numerous techniques gathered over the

years and adapted for his own purposes

make the creations of Fukuko Ando

unmistakable. Knots, transparencies,

inlaid work and crochet all form part of

his magical universe.

Photography by Michael Wayne Plant

203

Fukuko Ando

Photography by Michael Wayne Plant

204

Fukuko Ando

- What inspires you?

I’d like to take the Louvre’s Winged Victory of Samothrace as an example. I can sense the life, the total liberty and energy

of this statue. It has a greatness you want to grasp but which eludes you, a movement as full as the wind.  e Victory

symbolizes my desire for a dress that is alive and free through time and space.

- What is your dream as a designer?

Dresses are living beings with a soul, as well as a body. Like the Winged Victory of Samothrace, I would like to create

dresses that awaken human beings, so that wonderful human souls would open their hearts and reach for the light.

 is is a prayer.

- What has been the most important achievement of your career?

 e Golden Promise (fashion show and performance). Fifteen dancers from the Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris

(including the start dancer, Marie-Agnès Gillot) performed at l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in

October 2006.

- How important are trends?

My concept of creation is like Madame Madeleine Vionnet. She used to say, “What I made was harmony: an ensemble

of shapes and colors that would never change nor age. I wanted only things that would last, not just for a month or a

year, but forever.”

- Fashion has always refl ected a certain era. What does fashion refl ect in the twenty-fi rst century?

Love/light now and forever.

- What book would you recommend to every fashion designer?

La chair de la robe, by Madeleine Chapsal, a biography of Madame Madeleine Vionnet.

Fukuko Ando

280, rue Saint-Honoré

75001 Paris

France

www.fukukoando.com

205

Fukuko Ando

Photography by Michael Wayne Plant