Recently finished reading the newly-published autobiography by Yohji Yamamoto, the great Japanese designer. It’s called My Dear Bomb. In it, he talks of the Japanese concept of ma, or the ‘empty gaps in time and space.’

Ma is all about space; it is a pause in a spoken phrase or movement, an interval between two things. It is described as a concept of the recognition of space that the viewer/reader experiences within. In other words, it is an experiential thing – the viewer’s perception has a lot to do with it.

It got me thinking about space within creativity. When we create our garments, objects, stories, whatever, do we consider the spaces in between? How do the pauses and the spaces impact (if they do at all) on our design and the story we are telling?

Any thoughts, anyone?

BDW