slides: Noriko Kikuchi: Bringing Abstract Designs to PDX Runways

Monday, February 23, 2015

Kemea Smith, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Fashion designer Noriko Kikuchi. Photo Credit: Aj Caldeira

Fashion designer Noriko Angeleen Kikuchi will present her “White” collection at RAW Natural Born Artists: Grandeur event.

“My work is rather on the conceptual side than utilitarian, so I consider it art more than fashion,” says Noriko Angeleen Kikuchi. Kikuchi considers her trademark to be creating ethereal atmospheres while combining intricate surface textures and cutting edge designs.

See Slides Below: Raw Artist: Noriko Angeleen Kikuchi

Robert Ryman’s minimalist white paintings were a powerful influence behind her subtly stunning collection of all white and translucent ensembles. “His work truly opened myself into a whole new understanding of art,”says Kikuchi.“I was no longer looking for what was within the frames, but what was behind the motivation of the art and an entire life of an artist.”

The White collection also features knitted fabrics interwoven with lace and mesh, creating a light and texturized finish. “It also helped me to express the colors constantly shifting within the light, into a rainbow shades, yet all within white,” says Kikuchi.

“White” was shown at New York Fashion Week in September 2012, and featured in The New York Times while other collections have been shown at Harvard University’s annual fashion show.

Kikuchi grew up in Nagoya, Japan, lived in Florence, Italy, and attended Parsons The New School of Design for her MFA. She recently moved to Portland saying “It is a place where I can find more inner balance while being surrounded by the grace of the great nature.”

Kikuchi will be collaborating with artists Kenneth Quiroquiro during the RAW event with a art installation, and will be showing pieces from “White”, “Emptiness”, and “Hands and Brain" collections.

Come out and support Kikuchi and other Portland artists at RAW: Grandeur, Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison Street, Thursday, March 5, 6 pm- 10 pm. For more information click HERE.