The inspiration for the collection came from my travels around northern Britain and Ireland last winter, often in thick fog and feeling gusts of wind on my face. I visited remote rural places where local people still use old knitting patterns and do traditional needlework. I tried to feel and understand something about the lives of these people by standing on the steep stone steps leading up the cliff by a fishing village, feeling the texture of moss and seaweed, handling lobster baskets, gazing at windswept treeless islands and colour of the sky over the cold North Sea.
I tried desperately to capture and share feelings and emotions of the people whose ancestors first made those beautiful traditional knitting and needlework patterns. Then I used the emotions that I had felt in order to design my new collection.
The collection is inspired by the environment in which traditional knitting and needlework have been created but it is not reproduction or neo-traditional. It tries to capture some of the romance and the history of fishermen’s wives knitting for their families, as well as the history of knitting as a cottage industry. Many of the women I visited still knit jumpers, and sew garments for their families as well as helping themselves to earn some income. I hope to have captured some of their determination, passion and skill in my designs.
The majority of my products are made for me by a small family-run factories and individual knitters, all of whom are proud their skills and have a passion for knitting production. I hope that my customers will enjoy wearing my products as much as we have enjoyed creating them.
霧深く、強い風が吹く英国北部とアイルランドを旅しました。
訪れた場所の多くは有名な編み物の模様を生み出したり、針仕事の歴史を持つところ。けわしい崖の小さな漁村の長い長い石階段、苔、波に流された海草の山、港に重なるロブスター用のバスケット、木が生えない島、時間と共に変化する空と北海の色。
そんな風景を見ながら今や伝統として語り継がれる昔の人々が生活から生み出した針仕事の情熱の足跡を感じるコレクションを創りたくなりました。
伝統的なものの再生でもなく、懐古主義でもありません。多くの伝統手芸には、例えば漁夫の妻が安全を祈って編まれた、というようなロマンティックな話があります。同時にそういう技は貧しい生活をささえるうちに女性たちの内職として産業の一部として認知されていました。そういうごく普通の女性たちの針と糸への静かな情熱は、後に工業化されていく編み物産業やファッションの流行の基礎となる様々な技術や模様はもちろんのこと、編み物の最大の魅力である’暖かさ’の原点でもあります。
Hikaru Noguchiの商品の多くは、ごく少人数が様々な工程に携わり、経験からの技や手の勘が生きる、編み物生産への情熱があふれる家族経営の小規模工場や家庭内職さんたちによって作られています。そんな背景の持つ暖かさが皆さんに伝わりますように。
