In presenting 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?

Originally, I had been studying psychology at England, but there, I became interested in fashion, and ended up studying professionally. Because of such a background, it had always been my goal to present my collection at England, where I had learned all my professional skills. Not only England, but Europe also, and gain retailers. I felt this would be the perfect opportunity, and I faced it thinking I must put my all into it.

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

I think it is because we value handcraft, but I feel we generally received well at PITTI, and compared to Paris, which is centered around appointment, it was a good opportunity to have many and unspecified people see our brand. On the other hand, in Paris, due to the vast number of rivals, in comparison to them, I felt our brand would have a difficult time in our product development, SKU, pricing, etc. I realized such problems at the first exhibit held this January, so tried to remedy this at the second exhibit in June by increasing light items and put effort into holding down prices, which was received well from buyers. But at the same time, I also received words that our clothing had become boring, which made me feel the difficulty in balancing the two.

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

I knew from the beginning that, as a part of the TFA program, there would by a runway show in Tokyo, so being inspired by “Amazon”, whom was the title sponsor of fashion week at the time, I did a show under the theme of “buffer material” used for packaging. I expressed the change in flow of fashion with buying clothing without directly seeing or trying on becoming commonplace due to EC, the contradiction which exists there, through the clothing, music, model’s walking, etc. I received positive reaction from the people around me, but on the other hand, from the media, I received words such as the world view is interesting, but the intent was hard to comprehend. Having completed my very first show, I myself felt some regret as to not fully being able to do what I wanted to do, so I intend to continue making such presentation opportunities.

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

After the Paris exhibit in January, I received an order from a certain shop, but under our present production system, we were unable to fulfill the ordered number, so the business did not come true. Furthermore, because we produce in such a way that it takes time and/or need skilled craftsmen, our products tend to become pricey, raising various difficulties in continuing as a ready-to-wear brand. I feel, such issues have become clear to us through this opportunity. At the same time, we found that there are many people whom value our way of production, and also gained a sure response. In addition, because I started up my brand right after returning from London, I had almost no acquaintance with designers active in Japan, so interacting with the other award-winning designers turned out to be an extremely good experience.

Please tell us of your future aspirations.

While creating expression which only I can make, I want to steadily wrestle incorporating that into products and prices our customers are looking for. As for overseas, I intend to continue exhibits from here-on, with a dream to one day owning my own store in England, because it was the place that gave me the opportunity to aspire towards fashion. As for the near future, I intend to strengthen my developments in Asian regions, such as China, Taiwan and South Korea. In the long run, as a brand, I am thinking of building a system which will enable us to create from ready-to-wear, spoke, to haute couture.