The Horiba sisters: an interview

Let's start way back, like a couple of years ago. When first discovering Marios Left Tanker/ Duomo Showroom it was thrilling! It's webshop that features only a handful of designers such as Daniel Palillo and February. Now let's fast forward, I get up the courage to talk to Roy of MLT about some of the designers. I was most drawn to Blank and I was excited, I must admit, when no one had talked about them on the blogosphere. But also, I was a little shocked. The Horiba sisters have a strong vision of what they want in a garment and I looked over their lookbooks twice over. Roy agreed to let me interview them and here are the inspiring results....

1.Could you describe the concept of Blank? BLANK is a fashion brand made by the Horiba sisters (Miyoko and Kayoko). BLANK feature theme is 'starting from white and exploring the possibility's of white color'. Aiming at a personal manufacturing of clothes and the urge to make everyday life pleasant. Using the technique of printing photographs and in there own unique way suggest "trompe l'oeil" art (technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion).

2. What is important to you when making a garment? The graphics and shape to be according to the season concept.i do also care much about fabrics quality and the way the prints will look and feel. 

3. Have you always known you would be a designer? No not always. 

4. Did you have other jobs/careers in mind? I would really like to work in product design or industrial design area. 

5. What do you draw on as an artist to create your pieces? The concept and the way to express it in the collection.  

6. What inspiration did you have for the newest collection? The new Spring Summer 2011 inspiration comes from "Marcel Ayme" (The Walker through Walls) as well as art and short story from his book. And from the Japanese Manga the wall man by "Daijiro Moroboshi".  

7. Where would you like to take your work? Would you prefer to keep it in Japan? 

We currently work with a couple of shops world wide (Pixie Market) in NY but mainly in Asia i will be grate to work with more shops around the world. 

8. What do you like to do in your spare time? 

Watch movies mainly Japanese Animations and read Manga lately i watch Ganime is a kind of Animation movie with out much movement just changing still images and writing.

9. What do you think of fashion blogs? I like blogs in general, fashion blogs, and the Internet makes everything faster. I remember a couple of years back everyone was kind of hiding the collections until the last moment. I feel that fashion blogs have made everything more open and personal then the normal web page.

10. Are there any fun and exciting things happening for BLANK? I just hear that after a 3 years rest there is a good chance to Resurrect the collaboration line BLANK+MARIOS with the Italian brand MARIOS we always had fun and very good feed backs on this projects.

*Please be sure to check out Duomo showrooms blog: http://www.marioslefttanker.blogspot.com/

Life is beautiful, let's share a little. 

Joy D.