Fashion in Bloom

In origami it is the smooth surface and clean initial shape that I love, out of which erupts 3D form and line and texture, catching the eye at every instant.

This eruption out of purity and simplicity, and the retention of it for as long as possible, or the transformation of it into other, reduced forms as the development progresses, is what I like in the work of the best origami designers, those few who know the true cost of complexity. But it is a characteristic also of some of the most beautiful shapes in nature, those of many birds, for example; or flowers, which retain an innocence or a cleanness of line even as their parts differentiate and complexify and turn into the sophisticated instruments of attraction that they must necessarily be.

So it is with special interest that I am following the career of one particular designer—not of origami, but of haute couture—whose work has some of this very innocence and sophistication of the floral bloom, its fragility and its might, its order and its organic casualness. She is one of several fashionistas around the world now incorporating origami into their work at a quite high level. But her line in couture reminds me of paperfolding, or its hopes, even when it does not, for instance, incorporate tessellations into a throw-shoulder piece.

What strength and femininity there is, in that floral eruption.

You'd think the theme of the bloom would have been completely mined by now in the fashion world. But when it arises out of one's nature, as it does with this designer, the bounty can be endless.

One day I will do a show with her.

I met her in Budapest in 2009 as a guest of the Hungarian Origami Society.
Not so well known outside her country, she deserves to be.

She is BAHARAT.