"Ask the Future of Fashion," a series that explores the young talents who will shape the future of Japanese fashion, is now in its second installment. This time, we speak with Kotoha Yokozawa, designer of kotohayokozawa. Her graduation project from Esmod Japon Tokyo in March 2013 garnered attention, leading to a solo exhibition at Kyoto's Gallery 110 in August of the same year. After graduating, she worked as a designer for a major apparel company before launching her own eponymous brand in 2015. She was also selected for "Tokyo New Age," a project bringing together young designers produced by Yoshikazu Yamagata and Mikio Sakabe. Her proposals for a girly look that is whimsical and unstable, yet also exudes a ladylike beauty, have steadily gained her fan base. This interview was conducted in her studio, on a desk still bearing numerous traces of cutting. When did you first become interested in fashion?

Actually, it was very early. Before I was born, my grandmother ran a dressmaking shop, and our house was equipped with all the tools needed for dressmaking, including a sewing machine. So, cutting fabric and sewing was a regular pastime for me. In my kindergarten yearbook, I apparently wrote that I wanted to be a fashion designer. I went to a high school called the Fashion Culture Department, where I had half regular classes and half Western and Japanese sewing classes, and I had decided from elementary school that I wanted to go there. Even as a child, I would get angry when people would just assign me something to wear. I would say, "I choose my own clothes!" (laughs). I would be so happy when my friends complimented the clothes I'd put together. So, I felt the joy of being recognized by others from an early age. Even back then, I would spend a lot of time choosing what to wear that day.



--Choosing what to wear in the morning can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a hassle, right?

The clothes you choose will change depending on your mood, your physical condition, the temperature, the weather, and your plans for the day. For me, that's an important element, a challenge I face at the start of the day. I think it's a challenge that's given to everyone equally. Some people find it a real hassle, but I think it's fun. But most of the time I end up failing (laughs). I'll head out with high spirits thinking, "Oh, I can do it today," but often halfway through I'll realize, "Oh, something's not right. Oh, it's not good at all." My top and bottom clothes are okay, but then I'll be like, "Wow, the shoes are wrong" (laughs), and I'll be blue all day. But it's okay to make mistakes. I'll feel like, "This is a weird combination, but I came here today, I'm embarrassed!" That feeling of being all messed up. I like that because it's so human.

-- Your graduation project from ESMOD was also "weird" from a normal perspective (laughs). But it received very high praise, right?

In fact, when I was in my third year (my final year at ESMOD), without any prior notice, my design teachers were Yamagata Yoshikazu (writtenafterwards designer/coconogacco founder) and Sakabe Mikio (MIKIO SAKABE designer/coconogacco instructor). In my first class, they pointed out to me that "you're not thinking at all about people wearing your clothes," and "have you really thought about what kind of people you want to wear them?" I had never given that a second thought until then. But as I was exploring various options, one day while wearing a worn-out t-shirt and denim shorts, I had a moment of realization: "Ah, maybe that's what it was all about." In other words, I thought that if I made clothes using materials and designs similar to what I usually wear, I might be able to express a more human-like, raw feel.が待ち遠しいですね。 English:



At the same time, I was also digging deeper into my identity, and I was looking back at old photos, and one of them was a family photo. In one photo from 12 or 13 years ago, my dad was wearing a sweatshirt with "YAMAHA" written on the chest, which looked really unfashionable (laughs). He'd paired it with skin-tight, acid-washed jeans, and he'd come to school events and things like that. I was super embarrassed. But then I thought maybe it would look cute in today's world, so I immediately called my parents and asked them to send me the sweatshirt because I want to wear it myself. Well, it had already been thrown away, though. Sweatshirts were popular at the time, and I wanted to wear one myself, so I decided to make one. That sweatshirt ended up becoming my main piece, so I think it turned out well. After that graduation project, I started to use "what I'm wearing now and what I want to wear" as my main design source.

[Asking the 'future' of fashion] I wish we could make the clothes we want to wear tomorrow today. Designer Yokozawa Kotoha -- continued on 2/2.