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Fashion: On Garde
Garde Collective designer Kikuko Maki makes real clothes
for real women. Martin Webb gets the line on her innovative label.
Like her clothes, Garde Collective mastermind Kikuko Maki is an intriguing
study in contrasts. A street designer with the eye of a couturiere, a
mother and a working woman, both creative and business-minded, Maki herself
is a mix of old and new. Discussing her current Garde Collective S\S collection
over the sounds of Japanese a cappella, her tomboyish spiked hair and
work-worn hands somehow don't match her cool composure and girlish giggle.
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Maki's collection, held at La Place open-air venue in Aoyama, also makes
sense of confusion. Post September 11th and in the midst of recession,
Japan, like many nations, is torn. Images of peace and love sit alongside
those of hardship and war. Maki's designs—natural white cotton pants,
frayed jackets and bold flower prints—reflect a new, softer, hippy
era. And her vision of "Japanese casual couture"—designer
clothes for real women at realistic prices—reflects the new realities.
The theme of her current collection is Hope. "The Japanese economy
was in a bad state. I felt a pervading sense of despair, so I wanted to
spread hope through my clothes," she explains. Her 2002/2003 Autumn/Winter
collection is likely to touch on the same sentiments. "I haven't
told anyone yet," she laughs, "but this time I'm using 'Love.'
If we aren't asked what the meaning of love is, we don't think about it.
I used this collection to contemplate it."
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Whether it's hope or love, Maki wants to make both affordable and practical
clothes. She has no interest in creating a single item that costs hundreds
of thousands of yen, she declares. As a successful working woman, she
disapproves of young Japanese girls wearing stuffy, expensive brands.
Hers are comfortable clothes to suit women's demanding lives, but injected
with couture's spirit of care and precision. "Chanel isn't for teenagers,"
she insists. "The ideal is to look cool and feel comfortable. I'd
like people to put on my clothes for the day and be able to do their jobs
happily."
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Maki became interested in fashion as a teenager when she began customizing
clothes from high-street shops. After graduating from Nagoya Fashion School,
she tried her hand at various jobs in the fashion industry before marrying
gomme designer Masaki Yoshishige. Though a mother, Maki, now 43, never
stopped working, running a contract design operation from her home.
Since producing her first collection under the Garde Collective moniker
in 1996, she's established a reputation for feminine lines and wearable
clothes. To explain the choice of name, she flips through her well-ordered
personal organizer. Scribbles on a page show that Garde Collective is
an acronym of five French words: garcon, amour, reve, doux, emotion. "Girls,"
she says, "need to dream as grandly as boys." The rest of the
words are feelings she would like her collective—and her clients—to
keep in mind.
Woman on top
Despite the word collective on her label, Maki doesn't consult
other members of the company on her designs. And it's clear that
she's also the boss. "I'm a designer," she
says, " but in addition, I run the company. If it doesn't
run smoothly, we can't have a collection. I'm trying to
combine business and creativity. I want to make things that will sell."
Underlining her business sense, she says she's not emotionally
attached to the idea of a small company. The downturn in Japan has widened
the gap between the big and small fashion labels. The big houses have
been buying the smaller, independent labels, something that Maki thinks
makes sense. "There are lots of things that can be achieved with
the money, and it isn't necessarily a negative force," she
says. "Small companies like us tend to specialize in handmade things
that larger operations can't do. But producing a collection requires
so much in terms of energy and resources."
An eye for the times
With a clear sense of her own place in the fashion world, Maki is not
beholden to other designers or to the Paris and Milan collections for
inspiration. Nor is she rigid in the way she works. Her final designs
are drawn at her Shibuya atelier, but she also sketches in cafes or parks
around town.
Garde Collective's patterns often remain largely unchanged from season
to season. But to keep them fresh, Maki alters colors and prints or details
like the size or position of a pocket. A true businesswoman, she understands
that her clothes have to chime with trends, but is skeptical about the
value of chasing the latest "in" thing. In many ways, Maki's
inspiration is herself. She tries to wear a different ensemble every day
and designs what she would want to wear. Spotting what will be cool is
an instinctive process for her. "I've got a good eye for a cute outfit,"
she says. "Because I'm working in fashion it's always in my head.
So I translate things I see whilst walking around town into fashion terms."
But what she sees provokes mixed feelings. To Maki, Tokyo is a place
to get anything and everything—where girls wear outfits that wouldn't
be seen anywhere else in the world. "I've no idea where the money
comes from," she muses, "but girls here are definitely wearing
big label clothes. These days, Shibuya or Harajuku are as fashionable
as Paris." Having lived there before settling in Tokyo, she automatically
thinks of Paris when comparing Japan to the outside world. However, she
says Japan should trust its own instincts more. "With the Japanese,
the grass is always greener," she complains. "But there's not
much difference between the clothes Japan makes and those in Paris."
She wants to feel proud of Tokyo fashion, but feels the basics are lacking,
both in terms of design know-how and wardrobe-building. "Europeans
don't spend as much on clothes," she argues, "but here people
are so fickle. They don't buy clothes thinking of what they already have
in their wardrobe. So clothes that have taken a lot of time and effort
to design and make get discarded and forgotten."
Garde Collective is available at Le Shop, La Place de minami aoyama. 3-13-21
Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku. Tel: 03-3475-7770.
Images courtesy of Garde Collective.
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