Hasta La Ideas

Eley Kishimoto’s collaboration with Singaporean design publishers Work has resulted in another unique Werk edition. The new offering is made of real fabric prints, sketches and patterns created by the fashion designers…

For Werk No. 17, the latest in a series of bespoke publishing ventures from Work, Eley Kishimoto offer a glimpse into their working philosophy and their penchant for prints and patterns.

By way of a visual introduction to the duo, there are a series of family photographs highlighting the differences between the childhoods of both Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto. But the main point of interest is the use of their fabric prints and pattern designs that make up the latest “perfect-imperfect” edition of Werk.

Each edition of the new issue uses archive Eley Kishimoto materials in a slightly different way, so that no two are exactly the same. A bundle of four fabrics on both the front and back of the book act as its cover, with the back four folding over the spine and secured to the front with staples and dress making pins, mimicking, say Work, “a textile work-in progress”.

It’s a lovely piece of work that showcases Eley Kishimoto’s textile designs in a very hands-on way. Threads drop out, and the covers fray as you flick through the book, but that simply adds to the charm.

Selection of covers making use of some of the different fabrics

Design direction: Theseus Chan.
Design: Joanne Lim, Sharon Goh, Stanley Ho
Printing and construction: alsoDOMINE
Werk is published by Work in Singapore