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In 2002, I decided to show my ready-to-wear collection at the timing of the couture. I did it for 3 seasons. There
were less people attending, so the possibility was there to have smaller places and allow people to actually hear the
sound of the fabric. It was a very nice parenthesis.
Zac Posen told me in an interview that you influenced his decision to move his collection from
New York to Paris. You said it is the only place worth showing. Why is that?
Paris is the place for establishing your brand as an international one.
How are your designs connected to your Japanese heritage?
Think of the association with Japan as an exotic exchange. It is fun. Japanese people, or Asian people, like
European aesthetics and European people love Asian sensibilities. So as an exchange of senses it is all right. In
that way I agree 100 percent. But when a paper writes about me, they start with the Japanese designer We
have to find a new vocabulary. I understand why European people take my creations as very Japanese. It is
probably because if you see a creation as a whole, as 100 percent, I will always try to finish before arriving at 100.
This five, seven, or ten percent we call empty or in between or uncompleted in Japanese.
Can you give me an example?
Its when you go to shut a window or door and leave a space. We need this space, so I design space. Space has
always been very important in Japanese traditional art of every genre like painting, sculpting, or theatrical
expression. The space of expression is even more important than the visual or written.
But you also still produce in Japan, which gives your clothes a certain Japanese feel because of the
unique ways of treating fabric.
Maybe I will be the last designer who cares strongly about Made in Japan. If I stop, maybe young designers
cannot afford to do business that way. It costs a lot; a Japanese mans hand has become the most expensive in the
world. So its my duty not duty its my desire to protect these small, traditional Japanese techniques. I use
almost all family factories. The most important thing is to keep going, otherwise it will disappear.
Do you also live in Japan or do you spend the majority of your time in Paris where you present
your collections?
I live in Tokyo. I only come to Paris around my fashion shows.
Which role does traveling play in your life?
Working time. I travel to Paris for Menswear and Womenswear collections in January, March, June, October, and
to New York for my Y-3 collection in February, September.
How do you find peace within all these different places?
You need embellishment. You might be able to sleep with rock and roll music blaring full blast, but you cant just
have an absence of color. Transparency, thats no good. I really enjoy being in cahoots with people, having fun
with them, being connected. Equality, justice and all these values havent quite gone out the window, but we dont
find much evidence of them around either.