KAIE MURAKAMI
SIMONE INC. representative
Creative Director
Kaie Murakami has been chosen as the key visual creative director for two seasons of the “Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week TOKYO,” which will newly start from the 2012 Spring/Summer season. After working at the Miyake Design Studio, he has been working on the creative direction of various fashion, beauty, and luxury brands as the representative of SIMONE. He formed a production team made up of top Japanese creators to work on a new branding for the fashion week. We talked to Mr. Murakami about various topics, including the field of key visual production and issues facing the Japanese fashion industry in the future.
What were you conscious of when working on the creative direction for the key visuals?
Murakami: For the past 15 years or so, I’ve been working in the fashion industry both in Japan and abroad. During this time, despite the fact that Japanese brands were receiving a certain level of recognition abroad, I saw that they were not being rated as highly as brands from Milan, Paris, New York, and London. As Mercedes Benz is becoming the main sponsor and expansion into the global market is expected, the proposition was simple—to use this timing to see how far the value and presence of Japanese brands can be increased. Fashion is now a powerful culture that Japan can transmit out into the world, and is an industry that can become one of Japan’s core industries. Now that there are concerns of Japan’s brand power weakening due to the situation after the earthquake, I feel that there is more that there is more that needs to be done. In the past, creators from various fields were involved in JFW, but this time, I also feel the necessity for people that work in the field of fashion to take the vaguely-defined TOKYO fashion and give it directionality based on their global objectivity and experiences.
skirt: ATSUKO KUDO
rompers: jazzkatze
shoes: NORITAKA TATEHANA
jacket: PHENOMENON
pants: PHENOMENON
belt: DRESSEDUNDRESSED
studs belt: DRESSEDUNDRESSED
leggings: GARTER
socks: ATSUKO KUDO
shoes: PHENOMENON
pants: hatra
corset: ATSUKO KUDO
suspenders: G.V.G.V.
shoes: SOMARTA×NORITAKA TATEHANA
tops: DISSBORN
vest: DRESS CAMP
pants: G.V.G.V.
leggings: PHENOMENON
suspenders: ATSUKO KUDO
socks: ATSUKO KUDO
shoes: ARMED
body accessories: A LABEL by JIN OKUMA
bracelet: G.V.G.V. private property
Your production team is made up of the top creators that are active in the fashion industry.
Murakami: I first called upon Erotyka (Yonezu Tomoyuki + Tiffany Godoy). I feel that they are one of the few creators that that can express the “present” in the context of fashion while being aware of the two axes of Tokyo and the world. It is quite rare for me to call upon people like this, as I am also doubling as AD, but I did so because I felt the need to carefully filter the process from conceptual make-up to the finish with several layers. I had an image of a combination between Erotyka and the photographer Koichiro Doi from an early stage, and we decided upon the stylist, hair and make-up artist, and models after discussing it together. The team I formed ended up being quite unique because I wanted to take advantage of the perspectives and rules of staff members that are active abroad. Each person is highly skilled and has a superior sensitivity and so there was a feeling of tension on set at photo shoots, but they still worked together very smoothly. I’m sure there are both pros and cons, but I think that it was an extremely productive project.
Please tell us your concept for the key visuals.
Murakami: I thought about how to visualize and orient the universality of Japanese formal beauty and the modern and futuristic sense of present day “TOKYO”. The targets are the demographic that support core fashion culture from around the world and the fashion core demographic that supports everything from the young and aggressive fashions that represent TOKYO to Japanese brands. They welcome Tokyo fashion in a positive way without dwelling on the past, and their influence and diffusing capacity on the WEB is amazing. I focused on creating visuals that were able to respond to their expectations. These prerequisites produced keywords such as “static,” “POP,” “graphical,” “symmetry,” and “sculpture,” but Mr. Doi was a great help when it came to the expression phase. He accumulates and merges an enormous number of cuts for a single photo, and this style is due in part to the sensitive DNA embedded in Japanese people, and his work is receiving international praise. I feel that the method of interweaving technology with professional skill, producing a work that has a simple yet powerful sensitivity presents a way of bursting through the global wall as a Japanese creator.
Do you use only Japanese brands for the styling?
Murakami: Yes. I feel that the driving power behind current Japanese and Tokyo fashion is the editing and clearing away of all social rules and values. This has enabled a mix of everything from global fashion to vintage items, and these elements are seen in these brands.
For the Spring-Summer styling, I extracted the two keywords of “No Rules” and “Energetic.” I also consciously incorporated up-and-coming brands by Japanese designers that are gaining more recognition abroad. In the future, we cannot avoid the shrinking market in Japan, and we Japanese people have to think carefully about how to survive in the global market. In order to do so, it is important to think about how to make ourselves a necessary presence in the Western fashion culture, and brands that have actually managed this are starting to be recognized. Now that information is easily passed on thanks to the Internet, we should pause to discover the values of our own brands and present them in an active manner. I wanted to incorporate an aggressive message that is necessary for Japan right now in my visuals.
Rather than simply making clothes, it seems that the manner in which these clothes are presented will become more important in the future.
Murakami: I think so, and I think this will be an issue for Fashion Week overall in the future. This time, I am only participating in terms of key visuals, but Japan’s fashion industry has excellent infrastructure and technology. The Internet and digital signage are well developed, so I think that presentations that use these technologies will be most Tokyo-like and be a powerful instrument. Of course, it would be ideal to have people come visit Tokyo, but in order for people around the world to recognize what is happening here now, it is important to first actively “convey” this using digital media. Of course, this does not mean that the Internet is the only tool that should be used. Fashion Week is the “matsuri” (festival) at the peak of the industry, and still has an important function as a “salon.” It cannot be denied that the ultimate conclusion of Fashion Week is one of the trends that revitalize the industry. The culture of fashion originally consists of the two aspects of “clothing” and “phenomenon,” and as this becomes increasingly complicated, it is impossible to talk about fashion as a monism. I think that in today’s world, the word “creativity” will no longer pass unless it is accompanied by informational value and communication skills.
