Draw "less", draw "excess"

Ayomi Togashi must have received a brief stating exactly that, about 3 months before the opening of this season's Prêt-à-Porter. The result on the organic canvas of the press bag was stunning, and I just had to meet her. The press office gave me the number of the stand where she was on the day, spreading her art on kids organic cotton tops.

A short version of her CV goes like this: Japanese Ayumi arrived in Paris in 2003 and graduated from the Studio Berçot two years later. She has been studying fashion design and works today mainly with her illustrations and embroideries. She has been doing prints and applications for various fashion houses, e.g. Chloé, Cacharel, Sonia Rykiel and Nina Ricci.

She's a very open person, smiling effortlessly and showing genuine passion as she puts my bag on the table infront of her to take me through her print: "As you can see, on the side themed as "excess" the main figure is a woman looking stressed and frustrated. Everything around her are choices she has to make, tasks she must complete. They are taking over her so much, some birds on the top right hand corner are stealing her stuff and she doesn't even notice".

She also explains that the knots on the lettering, chosen especially for this bag by herself, are called "french knots". They are colourful on purpose, to show the saturation of the state of "excess".

She then turns the bag around to reveal the "less" side. "Here you only have a minimalistic scene from the classical fairytale "Snow-white". Colour is absent, the theme word is sawn as a long line of the same string and the heros are standing across each other".

But in which way does this reflect "less"? I ask not getting the message. "Can't you see?" she replies, "she is only one and all seven of them have to share her company and at the same time, she holds one and only apple, she has just one choice to make". It all becomes so clear...

Ayumi is probably reading these lines too. She is a very promising young designer and illustrator and her print made my brain work faster. She is original, talented, eco-sensitive and something tells me will see a lot more of her in the future. This limited edition bag is all the more special knowing the strong meaning behind her drawings....