Once the first part of the interview was finished, the group, guided by Yoshimoto, headed into the mountains near the studio.


This is a place Yoshimoto-san usually visits when she wants to relax or connect with nature. After climbing a mountain path for about 20 minutes, we arrived at a spot with a panoramic view of the city. With a pleasant early autumn breeze blowing, we talked mainly about the exhibition.

The highlight of this exhibition is the multi-layered motifs that use light as their theme.

---

--What were your feelings when you received the offer to hold the exhibition?

Ninomiya: It's simply like, "People will get to see it! Yay!" (laughs)

Yoshimoto: Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd floor is truly in the heart of the city, with a lot of people coming and going, and for me it feels like the very image of a city. I'm very interested in places like that, and I think it's a great opportunity to be able to do something there.

--Visitors come not only from within Japan but also from overseas. Is this aspect something you've taken into consideration with this exhibition?

Ninomiya: That's right. In the end, it will likely be something that is conscious of an environment overflowing with people and information. It's still in the production stage, but the concept for this year's <amachi.> autumn/winter collection is "Record of Light," and we are starting from "the light and shadows that come into a room," which is connected to that.

Actually, in July, I was doing a residency in a space called "pocke," which is like an attic on the second floor of an old building in Koenji. While I was working there, bees came to collect wood fibers to use as building material for their nests. This piqued my interest, so I started researching bees, and I learned that bees are social insects, with each member having a role, such as the queen or the males for reproduction, and that they live in groups and are social. Also, after spending several days in that quiet, attic-like place, just observing the light and shadows that came and went, it started to feel like a secret room. My recent interest has been in how to distance oneself from society, so I gradually started thinking about the image of people distancing themselves from society and the methods by which they do so...

From there, my perspective gradually shifted to the sense of distance between society and an individual. I think this work is a combination of various layers.

Yoshimoto: Shinjuku is a place where you really feel the presence of society, and I think it's interesting to express that personal side through a solo exhibition. At first glance, <amachi.> and Shinjuku seem incompatible, but fundamentally they might be very similar. I think that this Art Up project will probably have some kind of influence on my future creative work.

Ninomiya: Well, both are natural in their own way. They're both living creatures, after all.

Yoshimoto: Rather than holding a solo exhibition in an environment very similar to my own, I think it's better to do it in a more different place or for a more different audience, as that allows for a wider range of expression and a greater quality of expression.

--What are your thoughts on the future prospects for the brand, Mr. Yoshimoto?

Yoshimoto: When I chose fashion as a means of expression, I didn't intend to do fashion for the rest of my life. I chose one genre that I could master and excel in, and that would have a ripple effect on other genres, and that genre was fashion. The brand is still small, but now that it's in its third year, I can finally see a little bit of the future, so I would like to do even more collaborations and work with different genres in the future. I hope to be able to express myself not as just one genre, but as a broader way of thinking and direction of thought.

Event Information

amachi. × Kurina Nimomiya
"Observation Records of Light"

□October 16th (Wednesday) - November 1st (Friday)
□ Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd Floor = Men's Creators

Click here for details ▶

Text: Kei Osawa
Photo: Hideyuki Seta

inquiry
Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd Floor = Men's Creators
03-3352-1111 (main representative)