Quote

I never thought fashion was the job for me, because I'm Japanese. Clothes! That was a European, society thing.

The young Japanese, especially, love to wear the latest thing and when they come to London they head for my shops as part of what they want to find in Britain.

When I first began working in Japan, I had to confront the Japanese people's excessive worship for foreign goods and the fixed idea of what clothes ought to be. I wanted to change the rigid formula of clothing that the Japanese followed.

Sometimes I'll dress like a boy, sometimes I'll dress like a Japanese crazy teenybopper. I have clothes from the 7th grade that I've kept and still wear.

One must learn, if one is to see the beauty in Japan, to like an extraordinarily restrained and delicate loveliness.

I don't really do Japanese interviews. I don't think there's much call for me in Japan.

I know just enough Japanese to get by if I get lost and greet an audience properly, just from having a lot of Japanese friends and being there over the years.

I look Asian. I need to go to Japan.

It's a Japanese way of thinking, that I give value for my merchandise. So I don't want to sell unnecessarily expensive dresses and make just 10 or 20 and then feel satisfied. I want to design for real women who can afford my dresses.

People talk about Japanese kids as being inward-looking. But my experience is that if you offer them an opportunity, they'll take it.