Five

THE EXHIBITION AT THE MET had given me much to think about and this week, I sought to break it down and to recompose it into something suitable for my project. Curious at the surfeit of surface textures and decorative elements, I decided to research Japanese textiles and was struck by their simple - almost austere - quality that was, strangely, also very ornate.

THERE IS A TENSION there, this constant striving for balance between poverty and richness, that gives birth to something very exquisite.

THESE EXAMPLES OF surface textures and textile samples belong to a group I had edited down to. The follow weeks will see these images fed through the design process where synthesis occurs among disparate elements - the orange and asparagus decorative motifs, the colour palette developed from a couple of weeks ago, images of the beguiling Shinto priests and now, the raw beauty of these textiles.

AT THIS POINT, candour will have me admit that my notion of beauty is often gnomic. For all that fashion and textiles relate to the surface and so what beauty they reveal must be found there, the emotions they evoke - the sentiments about beauty and the aesthetic revelations - can and should transcend these material forms. Such is the challenge and the stuff of which a good designer must make his constant pursuit.

Fin.