Nozomi Yamanami

_This is the first main collection exploring the possibilities of garments that respond to dynamic movements - especially from a cross-disciplinary perspective.

_I am specifically aware of constraints corresponding to gender inequalities which I experienced at a traditional workplace in Japan, where I encountered injustice, making me feel limited and restricted because I am a woman. My designs aim to empower women working within these power structures and create possible emancipatory narratives.

_Starting from an imagining of the capacity to fly that I found as one of the ways to set me free, and making a film to tell the story, I have been exploring wind currents andthe flow of air generated by body movements, being inspired by balloons and parachutes, and developing a structure according to these principles; I am strongly attracted to improvisatory dance performers who understand their bodies better and seem to move with greater freedom. My garment is at once an exploration and a metaphor for this freedom of expression.