Mina Perhonen: Ripples

For a well-educated fashion reader, a book of this ilk is something that would not normally be on a must-read list.  

Fashion is a business, a business of selling clothes; and yes, there is a part of fashion that is supposed to be inspirational and aspirational (emotional). But clothes when hanging on a rail in a store do not come with romance cards, they come with price tags, therefore their appeal is judged visually and not intellectually.

Mina Perhonen: Ripples is a fashion book that requires the reader to strain their gray matter to understand the inspiration and aspiration of these clothes and their designer. Mr. Minagawa may be regarded as a globally acclaimed fashion designer, yet this reader finds the clothes to be rather unexciting and very artsy. While Minagawa tries to expose his feelings about the finished garment, the make, the ownership of them, and the fabrics, the book reads almost like a series of haikus rather than the text of fashion books we have become accustomed to within this genre.

Aside from this philosophical and intellectual approach to his fashion there is another facet of the monograph that fails to meet the standards of so many  other  books of this category and that is the visuals/photographs and drawings. Any fashion reader will almost always examine the images to inform themselves more fully or to motivate them to read further to understand what this designer is all about. This reader experienced neither of those feelings or desires when reading the book.

It might be safe to say that some of Japanese fashion is an acquired taste.