What did you want to be when you were growing up?

I am a designer and wearer of mainly black clothing, currently living and loving the life in the mountainscape of Yamagata, Japan. My favourite colour is orange. I fell in love with fashion from a young age, but the sense of craft and fulfilment of which I dreamed has dwindled to so little that I find it impossible to see a place for my skills, training, and creativity. Moreover, the environmental and social damage which the industry causes has forced me to reconsider the responsibilities of the designer. Fashion needs creators and inventors, and it needs to foster beauty in the world through not only its product, but in that product's environmental and social legacy.

I feel as fluid about my aspirations as I do about the concept of growing up. I'm still surprising myself finding new exciting things to do in the world. I greedily want to jump down each new rabbit-hole, and yet I want to continue to strive for my well-rehearsed dreams. Can tangents run their course, and one passion inform others in turn? If there's any chance of creativity and invention left in this nostalgic, remake-ridden world, it must be worth a shot.

Down the proverbial rabbit-hole, Akita-ken, Japan. Photo by Yuki Kondo.