![Akira Isogawa: To take part in the 2014 'Japan Brand Project'. [Main image: Aurelio Costarella.]](http://yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/yaffadsp/images/dmImage/StandardImage/Aurelio Costarella - source2_3297DB90-92AC-11E3-BA25005056A302E6.jpg)
An iconic Australian fashion designer is set to follow in the footsteps of couture king Aurelio Costarella and international designers such as Issey Miyake and Louis Vuitton.
Local designer Akira Isogawa, together with WA Textile artist and agent to the BANSHU Japanese group SBK, Jennifer Gaye, has been invited to visit Japan and its textile industry in March 2014.
Isogawa will be a guest of SBK (Ozawa textile & Naigai Orimono), for his own collaboration, as part of the 'Japan Brand Project' coordinated to cross with the 2014 ‘BANSHU Fashion & Textile Program'.
The BANSHU Program was established in 2010 to assist Western Australian based fashion students and designers with the opportunity to develop cloth at the Ozawa and Naigai textile workshops in Hyogo, Japan.
Each year students from a variety of WA Fashion schools are eligible to apply and after a selection process, participate.
Established designer Costarella was invited in 2013, for his own collaboration, with past contributors to the project also including international designers such as Issey Miyake and Louis Vuitton who have utilised the techniques and cloths at Ozawa and Naigai.
Costarella, who last year included two of his developed BANSHU textile designs as part of his “30 year Retrospective exhibition” at the West Australian Museum, has also confirmed he hopes to return in 2014 to continue his support.
Gaye, who will travel alongside Isogawa for the project, has supported the BANSHU program since 2011 and stated that it has been “a very exciting couple of years supporting one of WA’s, most amazing, collaboration and exchange programs on offer”.
Isogawa said he accepted the opportunity after keeping a keen eye on the BANSHU collaboration for the past 10 months, and is looking forward to taking his own journey of BANSHU and developing his ideas.
“I am looking forward to this upcoming collaboration with Ozawa and Naigai Textiles and appreciate the generosity of Mr. Ozawa and Mr. Takase for inviting me to their factories.”
“This unique opportunity will allow me to explore, challenge and experiment design techniques with textiles. Providing a different point of view in a collection creates interest and individuality to a garment. I also like the blend of cultures that this BANSHU project is encouraging, it builds invaluable relationships across the world of fashion, not only for myself but designers from all generations”.
Ozawa and Naigai are two Japanese textile companies who pride themselves on their traditional values, keeping the production of their woven textiles within the same region that they have always been created and produced in, using local skills and natural resources.
The ‘BANSHU Fashion & Textile Program' was developed from an understanding by Ozawa and Naigai textiles that to remain relevant in an ever-changing market it is necessary to “broaden their market and in turn share their knowledge and skill at creating amazing textiles and opportunities by collaborating with creative designers who are in the beginnings and those established like Akira Isogawa”.