“Let us then suppose the mind to be … white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas.”
— John Locke

“Blank slates don’t do anything.”
— Steven Pinker

season 05 “blank slate”

At first, I wanted to return everything to a blank slate.Or perhaps, I simply wanted to create a collection that emphasized white as a symbol of peace.

I was tired of the chaotic reality around us and the violence that keeps repeating itself, and I wondered if it might be possible to reset everything once through a beautiful white.
I think I wanted to create a quiet margin on a notebook that had been filled with frantic writing.

However, as the production process continued, that thought gradually began to change.

On the bookshelf in my atelier, I found Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate, a book I had bought when I was a student.Through that encounter, I began to think again about the fact that human beings can never essentially be white paper.

Each person has their own shape of mind, and emotions and memories accumulate through their individual experiences.It is impossible to erase everything completely and return to a truly blank state.

Even so, society sometimes treats the individual as if they were a blank slate.Within words such as nation, enemy, justice, and cause, each person’s memories and pain become harder to see, and are overwritten by other words within a larger context.

This collection was born from that discomfort and a small sense of resistance.

Material Guide

This season, many of the materials are composed of two opposing colors.However, those two are not completely separate. While they appear as different colors, they hold the same color or structure within.

The goat suede is first struck through in beige at a tannery in Tuscany, Italy, before the surface is finished separately with black and white pigments.Around the edges and stitching of the café racer jacket, shoulder bag, shoes, and belt buckle, the beige core subtly appears from within.Although the surface is divided into white and black, the same color remains underneath.

The double-face textile woven in Tango, Kyoto, uses the same color silk yarn for the warp.Only the cotton yarn used for the weft is changed.Through its double-weave structure, both fabrics appear as the same pale grey silk surface from the reverse side, while the front reveals two different expressions of light and dark.

The monsha weave, woven by the same mill, also uses white spun silk yarn for the warp, with the weft divided into black and white.This fabric, which appears semi-transparent in places through jacquard weaving, has almost no difference between the front and back, and carries a texture in which the shadow inside is only slightly visible.

For the knitwear, I also created two colors of mélange yarn by twisting together two strands of silk noil yarn.Three colors of silk noil yarn are used, but one of them is shared between both yarns.As a result, each color appears different, while still containing something similar within it.

Of course, not all of the materials in the collection were developed through this same approach.Some of the materials developed in the earlier stages of production were created through a more straightforward method.

The baby calf leather, made from New Zealand hides and used continuously over the past three seasons, was developed in two colors: sepia grey and off-white.Both colors were finished in natural tones that sit comfortably against the color of human skin.

The soft lamb suede, dyed dark grey by an Italian tannery, is used for the quilted vest, trousers, and tote bag.The tote bag is made entirely from the same material, from the handles to the body. By keeping the center panel solid while finishing the gusset section more softly, it creates a harmony between geometric straight lines and organic curves.

The blue silk scarf, used as an accent color, is printed with a sketch of a Roma boy riding a bicycle with angel wings attached to his back.Within that blue, there is also the image of Pale Blue Dot, the photograph of Earth taken by Voyager 1 from approximately six billion kilometers away.Seen from that distance, Earth is no more than a small blue dot floating in darkness.That distance offers a different scale through which to reconsider the conflicts and ideas of righteousness that can feel so large in daily life.

The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken Feb. 14, 1990, by NASA’s Voyager 1 at a distance of 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) from the Sun. The image inspired the title of scientist Carl Sagan's book, "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space," in which he wrote: "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us." The above image, “Pale Blue Dot Revisited,” was created in 2020 for the 30th anniversary of the iconic picture. The updated version used modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view, while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

I am not a politician, and I feel far too powerless in the face of wars happening far away.
At times, I almost lose sight of the meaning behind what I am working on.

This season, I tried to understand what is happening in the world today by looking again at the thoughts and emotions that arise within my own mind, and translating them into expression.

Counting from season 00, this collection marks the brand’s sixth season.

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has supported and worked with me up to this point.

Daisuke Tanabe

References
John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
NASA / Voyager 1, Pale Blue Dot
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Joseph Beuys, Das Blaue Kreuz
Josef Koudelka, Gypsies
Kendrick Lamar, “The Heart Part 5”

Notes
Struck-through dyeing
A dyeing process in which the dye penetrates not only the surface of the leather, but also the interior.
Surface dyeing / pigment finishing
A finishing method in which pigment or dye is applied to the surface of the leather. This can create a contrast between the color of the core and the color of the surface.
Double-face / double weave
A woven structure that resembles two layers of fabric combined together. It can create different expressions on the front and reverse sides.
Monsha weave
A woven textile that combines the transparency of sha gauze with patterned structure. It can express partial transparency and shadow.
Silk noil yarn
A yarn spun from short silk fibers. Unlike uniform filament silk, it has natural slubs and irregularities.
Mélange yarn
A yarn made by twisting together strands of different colors. Rather than appearing as a single flat color, it creates a mixed color with depth.