Fashion Show "Gap, Hint" Waseda University Textile Research Association

The Textile Research Society, a student fashion group at Waseda University, held a fashion show titled "Gap, Hint" at Hillside Plaza in Daikanyama Hillside Terrace on Sunday, December 22, 2024. We spoke with representative Kohei Inoue.

Student Group Waseda University Textile Research Association
Representative: Kohei Inoue, 3rd year student, Art History Course, Faculty of Letters, Waseda University
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The meaning conveyed by "Gap, Hint"

Founded in 1949, the Waseda University Textile Research Society is a historic organization celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. It primarily organizes fashion show events, with three divisions: production, direction, and public relations. Its core activity is "fashion criticism," and the purpose of its activities is to stage shows for the sake of criticism. In modern society, the environmentally unfriendly manufacturing process for clothing is becoming a problem. Even knowing this, consumers still buy clothing because it's cheap. The current situation calls for a reconsideration of the essence of fashion, and the group raises this issue through events and other activities.

This year, under the title "Gap, Hint," three fashion shows were held at Daikanyama Hillside Plaza on Sunday, December 22, 2024. The theme was "Seeing the invisible," and the show focused on the "aesthetics of white space," which places value on unintentional spaces.
Each of the 25 designs was created with a unified worldview, creating a stage with a sense of unity. The pieces were created with meticulous construction and attention to detail, highlighting the artisan's attention to detail. The production was centered around the concept, with music produced to match the image and lighting considered, resulting in an original show. The music began with the sound of rippling waves, gradually building up an ominous atmosphere, and the models walked in a composition that seemed to end with rippling waves.
The venue's stage design did not have the models facing forward, but instead was conscious of creating a three-dimensional space where the models surrounded the audience. The height of the ceiling created the concept of "space," and a banner hung on the terrace onto which the silhouettes of the models were projected. Tracing paper was used in the lookbook to create a soft atmosphere, and the designers were particular about the paper material and composition.

Going forward, they plan to focus on public relations activities to make more people aware of their existence, while continuing to cherish their traditional ideas and core values. They hope that we as consumers will be conscious of sustainability and take responsibility for our actions from the time we receive information to the time we purchase clothes.
Furthermore, CEO Inoue said that he hopes students will value the atmosphere of the moment and the sensitivity to what lies beyond, rather than relying on digital technology, and that he hopes to see more students involved in fashion.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on September 22, 2024 by Mari Okabe, a first-year student at Kunitachi College of Music

Thoughts on the fashion show

As the title suggests, the venue's high ceilings intentionally created a sense of space, and the atmosphere of the venue, as well as the clothes, was a consistent part of the show. Focusing on the problem of mass production and mass consumption in modern society, the clothes produced by the Waseda Textile Research Association, led by Inoue, conveyed their desire to encourage consumers to consider the process that led to the creation of those clothes. This was my first time actually seeing a fashion show, and I was captivated by the meticulous attention to detail in the designs and the names given to each piece of clothing. I hope that when many people go out to buy clothes in the future, they will think again about what they most need at the moment, before making an impulse purchase.
Mayuka Kato, 3rd year student at Otsuma Nakano High School