Shinichiro Arakawa Interview by Jennifer Wong for MONITOR
What was your own purpose to become a fashion designer?
I was already in fashion because my father was working in textile, so when I was young I was playing with buttons. Nevertheless it's not specially because of my father that I decided to become a fashion designer. One day when I was in a club I saw a girl wearing a beautiful dress (certainly, from a designer), and I was surprised by the lines of the clothes, the attitude of this girl wearing this garment, and started to imagine how many possibilities we have in creating a garment. People express themselves through what they wear ‒ so every person has his own style, and so you can have lots of ways of creating things according to people's characters.
You define your workfield as «fashion» or otherwise?
Otherwise. My own culture. I think my work lays in the middle between fashion and art.
What is the most complex aspect in your work?
I cannot create a collection without a subject. There is no garment without an idea.
Your compatriot designers, such as Yohji Yamamoto or Rei Kawakubo, insist that it is senseless to use the term «Japanese designers» or «Japanese style», both because designers from Japan are all very different, and because their works have often nothing to do with their origin. What do you think about it? What did your Japanese roots give to your design vision?
I think, that's not so true. The roots are important, but the country culture has certainly a bigger influence than the roots. For me, personally, Japanese culture and history seem more important in my work than the roots. I don't have Yohji's or Rei Kawakubo's experience, so it's hard for me to say whether Japanese style exists or not. I don't have enough experience behind.
Switching from Paris to Tokyo and back, what are your impressions of working in each of these cities?
In Tokyo life goes so fast that I don't have much time for reflection. It is so speedy that I feel very tired. In Paris I am free to concentrate on creation, my head is «airy». I feel better in Paris to start a new concept.
For you, fashion is more like work or like a game?
It's hard not to conciliate work and game. The most important is that for me fashion is a passion. Without passion you don't have real work.
If you had to describe your design in just one word, what word could it be?
Memory. I work with my memory. When I create a garment, I remember a lot of things I've seen since my birth. I create an image from something very old in my life. The garment is impregnated with my past.
Where do your ideas come from?
My ideas come from my past, from my Japanese and French culture. From my own experience of living.
And the «garment-picture» idea?
The idea came from a small drawing, on which I erased intentionally some parts of a garment, like a sleeve, or the middle of a collar. Also because l have been to an art school before my fashion school, I've got the idea to do a real garment with a sleeve missing, for example. I create clothes, so why not integrate my art experience into my fashion experience? That's why I decided to do some «paintings».
There is always some strong concept behind your collections. With your method, what comes first ‒ image or concept?
It depends on the collection, but generally the concept comes before, and the way of creating a garment ‒ afterwards.
Has any of your designs become a turning point for you?
Every season I change my work and method, so every season I learn something new. Always discover something new.
How does your work style change throughout the years?
At the beginning each garment had its own concept and idea, but now I concentrate on only one aspect through one collection.
If you had an opportunity to work in some other design field ‒ what would you choose?
I would really like to produce a movie, because with a movie you have everything: fashion, subject, spirit, ideas and images.
Which way are you going to move?
I will develop my work on image. To make a movie is the core of this idea. I want to assemble a lot of things I appreciate in a movie. During the years of work in fashion I haven't been much concentrated on the image ‒ a picture with some special subject or idea. Now I want to do that.
Is there anything you'll never do?
I don't know exactly. I'm sorry.