MPavilion 10 Uniform

DNJ Paper responded to the brief by developing a cardamon-green linen jacket and a pink paper vest worn on top, inspired by a Japanese-style work coat called a samue and traditional Japanese paper clothing called kamiko.

Typically producing small custom made-to-order garments, designing a paper uniform from handmade washi paper was a unique engineering challenge. The wear and tear the paper vest would endure over the summer, and the fit of the uniform on bodies of varying proportions were important considerations.

Some elements of the design, such as the circular area with the adjustable strap, were designed in response to the forms in the pavilion. In order to weatherproof the vests, a custom oven was built to be able to wax the entire garment.

The fine, lightweight linen compliments the smooth concrete of MPavilion 10, and wrinkled, waxed paper brings texture to the space. The colour choice was inspired by the grey & green hues of the structure and the surrounding nature. DNJ Paper’s design is light yet durable, low waste, evolves over time and eventually wears away creating contrast with the rigid, unchanging nature of MPavilion 10. Having a material that asks you to be mindful about how you’re interacting with it, but is also surprisingly durable, creates an exciting tension.

Drawing on their expertise (Daphne is one of the world’s leading experts on paper clothing and Jake’s Japanese family have a background in textile art) and through deep ethnographic, historical, and studio-based research, DNJ Paper have finessed the art of successfully incorporating paper into garment making. They propose that paper can be an alternative to non-sustainable materials in everyday life.

For the MPavilion 10 Uniform they chose to use handmade Yokono-Washi paper made by the family-run paper making atelier Ueda Handmade Washi Factory in Okayama, Japan. DNJ partnered with Yasumasa, a seventh-generation papermaker to custom-make the sheets necessary for the uniforms. The paper’s pulp is made from the inner bark of the Mitsumata tree, sourced locally from the mountains around the workshop.

As the MPavilion 10 Uniform design evolved, Daphne and Jake had to consider how they could make the Washi paper more flexible to fit bodies of varying proportions, more textural to contrast the smoothness of Ando’s concrete pavilion, and more weather-proof and durable to withstand the wear and tear of the front-of-house staff’s job and daily exposure to the elements. They achieved this by implementing a technique of waxing the surface of the Washi paper with local Australian beeswax and then baking it.

The colours of the uniform were chosen in consideration of the garden setting of the pavilion and the colour of the concrete structure. Some elements of the design, such as the circular area with the adjustable strap, were designed in response to the geometric forms of MPavilion 10.

Paper is an unfamiliar material for clothing, so people might be surprised by it at first, but DNJ Paper want to show its durability and potential for use in everyday life. It is a material that defies all logic when it comes to clothing, but DNJ propose that perhaps clothing shouldn’t last forever, and change over the course of time. If fashion itself is beholden to seasonal changes, then why should garments themselves be immutable?

Daphne and Jake used a combination of traditional and innovative, low-waste techniques to convert the paper into a hard-wearing and impervious material that would meet the brief for the MPavilion 10 Uniform. The paper was first dyed a rich pink using colour extracted from dead-stock red polo shirts, they found in their studio’s building that used to be inhabited by a Chinese TV station. The dyed sheets were then cut, sewn, and evenly coated in Australian beeswax and then baked in the custom oven purposely built for this project.

DNJ paper, through the MPavilion 10 Uniform, have truly proven how this beautifully delicate and elegant material can be hard-wearing, practical and sustainable. Washi paper is distinct from other kinds of paper in that it’s much stronger, more pliant and more absorbent and is suitable for many applications in daily life, from architecture to clothing.

In a public statement, Naomi Milgrom AC, commissioner of MPavilion 10 and the Uniform said that, ‘DNJ Paper were chosen for the unique synergies they share with this year’s architect – their combination of natural materials with minimalist structure thoughtfully reflects Tadao Ando’s values and ideas.’

The MPavilion 10 Uniform has been a huge success throughout the MPavilion season. Not only does it compliment Tadao Ando’s minimalist concrete design perfectly, but more importantly, it has proven very durable, has aged beautifully and has taken on a fantastic patina over time.

Testimonies from the front-of-house staff state that they have found the MPavilion 10 Uniform to be very comfortable, versatile and easy to maintain and clean. Furthermore, the Washi material has sparked the curiosity and interest of the 150,000 visitors, who attended the over 230 events at MPavilion 10, and interacted with the front-of-house staff. Patrons were intrigued, surprised and delighted when they realised the uniforms were made from paper.

Through the low-waste design process and transient nature of the MPavilion 10 Uniform, DNJ Paper have addressed pressing and necessary social, aesthetic and conceptual challenges related to the fashion and textiles industry today.

Though paper can be considered an “impossible” material for a uniform, the paper vest especially is exemplary of innovative circular and sustainable design in terms of raw material, dye and surface finish, and lifecycle design.

The vest was made from paper handmade by the Ueda family papermaking workshop in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. Each sheet was made from the fibres of the mitsumata tree, harvested from the mountains around the studio. The white fibres were removed from the inner bark of the tree, turned into a pulp through an ages-old and painstaking process, and then formed into sheets by hand.

This slow process is important in sustainable manufacture as it invites reflection from the maker and user on the nature of the objects in our everyday life. DNJ Paper is transparent about these production processes and openly shares information about sites of production.

The vests eliminate waste and pollution as they were dyed using runoff dye from found deadstock red uniforms. Rather than using virgin materials or allowing the unused red uniforms to go into landfill as-is, the dye was captured using a simple process involving starch and tap water, and applied to the paper uniforms.

These uniforms were then coated to be durable and water-resistant to be worn in all weather conditions. Instead of a plastic or aerosol fixatives, DNJ Paper opted for a natural Australian beeswax and used no other additives.

The paper vests were designed to age and change over time, allowing them to break down. They embody sustainable principles of fashion design as they are designed to carry the marks of use and last only the season they were intended to be used for. This highlights an important contrast in contemporary fashion design—that the physical life cycle (long) of a garment rarely matches its social lifecycle (short).