March 27, 2020No Comments

Muses: What I’m Learning in 2020

I'm not afraid of starting over. My life is constant change and I welcome it with adaptability, flexibility, and resilience. I enjoy being uncomfortable when things get challenging, because I know I'm growing. I'm always investing in myself and with my education.

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February 3, 2019No Comments

Design philosophy with Yohji Yamamoto

“I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.” 

“Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy - but mysterious. But above all black says this: "I don’t bother you - don’t bother me".”

I really enjoy the philosophy and inner workings of Japanese fashion designer, Yohji Yamamoto. I appreciate how he brings out beauty, through playing with the darkest shapes and forms in fashion, and how he toys with this concept by using the color black.

His speech given at the Oxford Union is profound, and I thought it was particularly clever when he started having a audio tape play some of his favorite English vocabulary words:

asymmetric / contradiction / opposite / corruption / immoral / absurdity / idiotic / ludicrous / resist / destroy / destruction / disobey / incomplete / enjoy / poignant / morphing / damage

This gives me a look inside his brain, to see how and why he thinks the way he does, and how his visual perspective came to be. It helps me understand his inner world, expressed to the outer world through his clothing and craft.

“Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find yourself.” 

Designing for the future with pure truth, curiosity, and intention.

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© 2023 Monica Thy Nguyen

© 2021 Monica Thy Nguyen