Joshua Enker finds inspiration in Japanese culture

1. Please introduce yourself to our readers. (Who are you, where do you come from and what is your field of specialization?) 
Hi, my name is Joshua Enker. Last year I graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam with a BA in Fashion.
My degree collection, which I’ll be showing here at FAHIONCLASH, was a mixed collection; I wanted the pieces to be able to be worn by both sexes. That’s something that’s quite important to me.





2. What inspired you to create this collection? 
It started with a little book I found about Boro; the textiles from very poor peasants from Northern Japan (‘boro’ actually means ‘rags’ in Japanese). It was so beautiful how they pieced clothing together from scraps and kept patching it up over a long period of time. However, this beauty was a mere accident, as it was born out of sheer necessity/poverty. I liked how you could sense the passing of time in those textiles.
In the collection I made linings in boro-style patchwork, with stitches showing on the outside. I also worked a lot with Tyvek-paper which is durable, yet perishable; I like how it acquires a patina quite quickly (and has such a crisp feel). Similar qualities I found in jute. For shapes and silhouettes I looked a lot at Japanese street-wear; the fleeting quality of street fashion, I felt, was a nice counterweight to the almost timeless quality of those Boro textiles.






3. What was the biggest challenge in your collection? 
Perhaps ironically for a collection that deals with passing of time, time-management was quite a challenge.


4. If you were to define your collection in 3 words which ones would you choose? 
A moment in time...during your graduation year your degree collection is quite important, but afterwards you come to see it as just one step in your continuing development.

5. Your color palette is quite cool and pale – Why did you choose this particular color scheme? 
The color palette started off with functional blues and grays, combined with the crisp white of the Tyvek. The patchwork yielded some fairly soft colors, from which I took my cues for the rest of the palette.


6. How do you personally define “fashion clash” or “a clash with fashion” for yourself? 
Fashion can be a very direct way of personal expression. As most of us are all filled, to a more or lesser degree, with various contradictions fashion can be a great way for those clashing impulses to fight it out.