Watching the video for your 2022 SS Pause≒Play show, it’s amazing how you made not only
all the clothes but created world of the show with all its details like music
and production. As a layman, it seems like being able to pull something of that
caliber off once every six months would require an incredible amount of not
just time but also stamina and imagination. Is this something you find easy to
do?
It is. We all do
these things precisely because we are capable of doing so. This is our chosen
line of work, so it’s
only natural that we do all these things.
Do you find that designing apparel and creating a
show go hand-in-hand?
Having a show means
that everything is easier to make. I find the format of abstracting only the apparel
and then having a showroom to be much more
difficult. Probably because in my case, I don’t start from the idea of wanting to make a certain kind
of clothes.
So then what do you start from?
It’s almost always some sort of
image, like some sound that starts playing or someone’s
face or silhouette that pops into my head.
And this image will then tie into the theme or
concept of a collection?
It approaches those
things. But, it doesn’t directly
take shape into them. If I were able to make things that were actually as I
depicted them in my mind, things that I felt were perfect, then I would
probably stop what I’m doing right there, but I don’t believe this will ever be possible in my lifetime. Still, this
image or whatever, maybe it sounds funny to use the word “afterimage”, but this
afterimage-like vision is something I can see clearly from the early stages.
And then what started so clear begins to grow fuzzy at the edges and more
opaque as I work. Sometimes it can take several months for it to come back into
focus again, and all the work up to that point is grueling. During the first
fitting stages there is usually absolutely no focus whatsoever and my days are
spent agonizing over “something being wrong”. But then right before the end, a
moment arrives when the points of focus align once again. It truly happens in
an instant, an instant that I have to seize and follow through with in order to
finish things up in a flash.
So you see this afterimage first, but what do you
start from when actually embarking on the creation of a new collection?
This isn’t the type of work you can do
simply, where like once one thing is finished you just switch over to the next
one tomorrow. I have to be thinking about the next season as well as the one
after that from the very moment I wrap up the current one. I always have my
mind on what lies ahead after my next collection.
Does this mean you see each season as being
connected rather than separate projects?
I try to apply some
foreshadowing between them, but I don’t think anyone notices. For instance, once I can feel
confident that I’ve applied a certain technique to
completion, I should be able file it away with the conclusion that I won’t do anything that infantile again,
but there continue to be things that don’t quite work
out this way. That is my style of foreshadowing, I guess, something like a line
that keeps on going forever.
Watching your shows, they come across less like
presentations of concepts or themes than they do a kind of “statement” from you
as a designer. Do you feel any sort of anxiety or pressure to clarify your
statements in that form?
Anxiety is my
constant companion. It’s
an anxiety toward myself and my meager abilities. I’ve
never once had any sort of self-confidence. But, I think that’s also precisely why I’m able to keep doing
what I do.
When are you happiest or
most fulfilled as a fashion designer?
I suppose you could
say that when the first samples are completed it feels similar to a child being
born for me. The second surprise or moving moment comes when we begin casting
for the show and the clothes are put on a model that I then know is going to be
our opening face. But then in contrast to this I’m almost never during the rehearsals or actual show. I’ve never been able to watch the actual shows to begin with, you see.