In announcing your collection for 2 consecutive seasons at “PITTI UOMO” at Firenze and the Paris showroom “showroom.tokyo”, with what mind set did you face these?

To tell you the truth, from the standpoint of overseas developments, we had tied a showroom contract with an agency in Paris since the 2018 A/W season, so this was our 4th season in Paris. But this time, by gaining the support of the TOKYO FASHION AWARD and participating in its showroom, we had gained an opportunity to present in a number of locations in Europe, and I felt, the time had come to surely increase overseas sales as a brand. At this point, our overseas business is mainly in Asia regions, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai, so I am hoping to connect this opportunity to surely capturing European accounts. For this, I think it is important to have key shops such as Selfridges, Browns and H. Lorenzo, which gather attention from around the world, start carrying our items.

How was the reaction of the buyers and press whom came to the venue?

For the 2020 S/S season, under the theme “stone”, I purposely ignored marketing viewpoints such as market sales trends, and carried out intuitive clothes making of things I wanted to wear. There were items in which I also used agate, a specialty of my hometown Shimane. It was a return to my roots sort of design for the brand, but I think the reaction at the venue was positive. Overseas buyers tend to look for items which are core to the brand and/or icon-like powerful pieces, so my collection which was particular to color and use of color, received high praise.

Please tell us of the triumphant return event held during fashion week Tokyo this March.

The triumphant return event at this year’s fashion week turned out to be the first show for JieDa. Because it was carried out after the exhibit, it wasn’t done with a business point of view of trying to acquire orders, but rather, it was a show concentrating on “showing”. Thanks to that, the reaction from guests, buyers, press alike were all extremely good, and I was really glad to have done it. Even before being awarded the TOKYO FASHION AWARD, I had intended to present my 2019 A/W collection in show style and had already been making preparations, but our brand is operated with only 2 staff, so to be quite honest, it was very difficult because we were lacking in everything, from hands to scheduling, and of course funds. But after the show, we felt not only an extreme sense of fulfilment, but our level of acknowledgement rose around the world, especially is Asian regions, and we received many contacts. In the future, we intend to go on, keeping in mind and preparing for overseas shows.

What kind of experience has participating in the TOKYO FASHION AWARD Program been for the brand?

First, I’m truly happy to be among those award winners this time around. It gave me an opportunity to learn the creative stance of other brands which I wouldn’t have had a chance to know of otherwise, and this gave me an opportunity to rethink my own ways, with many aspects to learn, both creation wise and business wise.

Please tell us of your future aspirations.

I’ve revised my thoughts on clothes making since I decided to aim overseas as a brand, and I think the flow of the company has changed largely towards a good direction. To make collection presentations in Paris I need to advance creative processes, but because of this, I end up creating at a time with absolutely no information, which I feel allows me to create a collection with more originality as a brand. From here-on, I intend to continue making clothes fully utilizing JieDa’s forte of unique balance and silhouettes born from the essence of the time and its mood and raise what is a mere 10% or so overseas sales, aiming for a half-half domestic-overseas sales ratio.