I have been planning a weekend meeting with two lovely people who also happen to be fashion designers and fellow lovers of Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo. We were hoping for a sunny, warm day for our outing in Central Park, but winter decided to re-visit briefly. I could not bear putting on a winter coat, and so layers of black wool provided both warmth and protection.

When layering clothes what is on the surface always interacts with what is underneath. The interaction of the textiles with each other and the body add space, depth, shadow, movement and allows us to transmit a multitude of messages. Every garment has it’s own story of length, weight and surface interacting with the textile beneath it and the body inside of it all. It is the reciprocal interaction with the textiles and the body that create the language of communication.

Both my friends are experts at wearing and designing clothing that is meant to be layered. Something about what we have decided to wear spoke to us well before we actually communicated with words. Meetings with this pair always invokes visual signs, imaginative musings and creative dreams. During coffee, conversations move from fashion to music to art, photography, film and back to fashion. Like the clothes they design, every meeting we have adds textures and layers to the fabric of our relationship. I feel warmly cloaked by their friendship.

How do you convey your many “layers” through what you choose to wear?