In this fifth installment of our series, "Ask the Future of Fashion," we explore the young talents who will shape the future of Japanese fashion. We speak with Soshi Otsuki, designer of SOSHIOTSUKI. While studying at Bunka Fashion College, he attended "Coconogacco," and in 2015 launched his own label, "SOSHIOTSUKI." Since then, he has presented collections that have won numerous fashion awards both in Japan and overseas. This year, he became the youngest Japanese person to be nominated for the LVMH Prize, a fashion contest sponsored by LVMH to foster and support young designers. His collections are "Japanese tailoring," evoking the idea of "karesansui" (dry landscape gardening). His collections incorporate a Japanese color palette of black, white, and red, along with motifs reminiscent of traditional Japanese clothing, such as mizuhiki cords and chrysanthemums, into his tailored pieces.



--This is the first question I ask you all in this series. When did you become interested in fashion?

I started getting interested in fashion in high school, as they call it. Until I was in junior high school, I would wear the clothes my mother bought me without question. I guess it all started when I got a girlfriend (laughs), and that's when I finally started paying attention to my clothes.

--You were born in Chiba, weren't you?

Yes. I'm from Chiba Prefecture, but it's not particularly rural. It's just a little over an hour away from Tokyo. Many designers of my generation use their upbringing or adolescent insecurities as the identity of their brand. But I was born into a middle-class family in a commuter town in Chiba Prefecture. I wasn't particularly bad in middle and high school, and I wasn't particularly smart. I just felt like everything was half-baked.

There was a time when my lack of those insecurities, which are considered a necessary condition for an artist, actually became a self-insecure factor. When I first launched, I was developing my brand with this slightly twisted concept.

--When did you specifically decide to become a designer?

I guess it was around the second half of my second year of high school. Until I was in junior high school, I always thought I would join the Self-Defense Forces. My grandfather was in the Self-Defense Forces. My grandmother brainwashed me from a young age to go to the National Defense Academy, so I always thought I would go to the Academy and join the Self-Defense Forces. But I was a playboy in high school, with no goals for the future, and my girlfriend dumped me.

At that time, a close friend of mine said, "I want to be a film director." I'd known him since elementary school, and we often went to the movies together. He influenced me, and we'd talk about things like "theories of manufacturing" and what was so great about certain movies. But filmmaking seemed like a tough job (laughs), and I vaguely liked clothes, so I thought I might try becoming a designer.

--But I think it's difficult to enter the fashion world and be recognized by LVMH without a certain level of passion. Did you become aware of this after entering Bunka Fashion College, or were you determined to do it before you even enrolled?

I didn't just go in half-heartedly. Even in high school, I wasn't just watching movies, I would watch videos of the collections as they were released and do something like critiques with my friends. I'd always been nurturing this dream within myself, and I was really cocky, like "I'm going to be the best at Bunka Fashion College." I was an honor student until my second year. I was always there, never late or absent, and worked really hard on my assignments.

--From there, you went to "coconogacco," a private fashion school run by Yamagata Yoshikazu, right?

Yes. I was in my third year at Bunka Fashion College.

--How did that come about?

A friend of mine went to "coconogacco." We'd often talk together in the smoking area, and he showed me books and things like that, telling me that he was now a student at "coconogacco" and what sort of things he did there. I didn't even know Yamagata at the time. I saw Yamagata's collection in a magazine, probably in the fashion news, and thought, "Oh, the person who's shown at Tokyo Fashion Week is doing it, and he's a graduate of Saint Martins, so maybe I should go." At the time, I was vaguely thinking about going to Antwerp after graduation. I thought of going to school as a kind of prep school.

--There's an episode where your graduation project from Coconogacco didn't make it into ITS (one of Europe's largest fashion competitions).

The ITS application guidelines were posted at Bunka Fashion College, after all. I really wanted to get into ITS. In my second year, I aimed for the Soen Award, but I failed miserably. I also failed miserably in other domestic competitions... I was half-desperate, thinking, "Domestic competitions are crap, I want to go global."

So I submitted to ITS, but I failed the first time. The following year, people said, "Maybe Otsuki will do it," but I failed... The following year, my item was stopped at customs and never arrived, so I had to swallow my tears. So, I ended up trying four times. I had always made pieces with the theme of "Japanese salarymen," but the winner of the fourth attempt was a Japanese student from ESMOD, who also had a salaryman theme. Since I had won with the same theme, I was frustrated and my heart was broken. My salaryman wife of four years was seduced by a random guy!



--You were conscious of overseas competitions, so the way you presented your collection is interesting. Some looks use foreign models, and sometimes you use older Japanese models, right?

That was definitely the case with your salaryman-themed collection. Salarymen all wear similar suits to work, which is very Japanese and domestic, so it must be difficult to convey all of that nuance to an overseas audience. Such things need to be placed in the context of so-called "mode," so the look photos were taken using foreign models, but to help people understand the concept, we used Japanese models to present them in a pure way.



Continued in Part 2: "A sense of realism created by Japanese-style tailoring."