“Light is my medium to be investigated,” says the Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, who has over the years donated his precious time to chasing bands of prismatic color around his stunning studio in Tokyo.  He carefully captures them with what was for him rapid-fire succession, with the use of only a simple Polaroid camera.  I certainly love when people accept fashion as art!     

In collaboration with the luxury brand Hermès, 20 of the fascinating artist’s abstract color studies have been translated into light and softly draped silk scarves in signed, limited editions of seven each.

The collection has been christened “Couleurs de L’Ombre” (Colors of Shadow) and is a touching tribute to the humble Polaroid, which faces forthcoming extinction. (Sugimoto in fact exhausted his final batch of the film to make the images.) Hermès being true to its luxury name on the other hand developed new inkjet technology in order to authentically recreate the subtle gradations of intense and saturated color.

Where the original Polaroids are small and precious, the scarves are definitely large — just over 55 inches square — and vibrant, finding the music if you will in playing with light, in different ways perhaps the artist had never even anticipated. Now at around $10,000 (€7,000) you might think twice before investing in or actually wearing one.  Seriously you might think more than twice! “It’s serious art for me,” Sugimoto says, with a nod to Hermès. “And if it’s serious art, for me, it’s also very reasonably priced. ” 

Available at hermes-editeur.com

Some of the artists other work