Design is not for philosophy it's for life.
Even when I work with computers, with high technology, I always try to put in the touch of the hand.
The purpose - where I start - is the idea of use. It is not recycling, it's reuse.
My fascination has been the space between cloth and the body, and using a two-dimensional element to clothe a three-dimensional form.
I started to work with cotton fabrics. I used cotton because it's easy to work with, to wash, to take care of, to wear if it's warm or cold. It's great. That was the start.
I'd rather look to the future than to the past.
We yearn for the beautiful, the unknown, and the mysterious.
Clothing has been called intimate architecture. We want to go beyond that.
Many people will say, well, clothes should be worn; but I think people can look at them in public, like seeing a film. I think museum exhibitions are very important.
I love to be free to explore, research, and evolve.
Everything is an experiment.
Design is a vital component to the enrichment of our everyday lives. Japan has a very rich history and culture of design, and I feel it is a very important dialogue to open and keep evolving.
From the beginning I thought about working with the body in movement, the space between the body and clothes. I wanted the clothes to move when people moved. The clothes are also for people to dance or laugh.
My design is no design.
By the way, Marilyn Monroe was a size 14.
Of course there are many ways we can reuse something. We can dye it. We can cut it. We can change the buttons. Those are other ways to make it alive. But this is a new step to use anything - hats, socks, shirts. It's the first step in the process.
I sent 200, 300 of the clothes that I had made, and the dancers chose what they liked.
All of my work stems from the simplest of ideas that go back to the earliest civilizations: making clothing from one piece of cloth. It is my touchstone.
My touchstone started out being - and is still - exploring the ways by which to make clothing from a single piece of cloth.
The core spirit of Pleats Please is joy, and what better emotion to wear on your skin every day?
