HIROKO KOSHINO

“It feels exquisitely sophisticated to be surrounded by what I like.”
A-One-on-one Interview with Hiroko Koshino
 
Hiroko Koshino is one of the iconic fashion designers representing Japan. Her works are not only limited in Japan but are also showcased in the global main fashion collection such as in the Paris Collection. Moreover, she is known as the first Japanese designer who held a big fashion show in Shanghai.
Hiroko Koshino, the eldest daughter, and her two sisters are well known fashion designers and children who were raised by their mother, Ayako Koshino, the main character in a morning NHK TV series, “Carnation”. We interviewed Hiroko Koshino, who grew up in this family of fashion, and succeeded at the front line consistently, and is now getting attention for her works as an artist.
 
What is Hiroko Koshino’s design motto as a successful global fashion designer?
Hiroko Koshino:
I think that I want to take good care of “Japanese Beauty”. My grandfather was a dealer of kimono fabrics. He showed me Japanese traditional art like Bunraku, Kabuki. Moreover, he is acquainted himself with geishas because he was a dealer of kimono fabrics and as for me, I yearned for the beautiful geishas.
There is a Japanese old saying that “what is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave.” which means that when we have a sense in our childhood, we can have it until our death. I have a foundation through my grandfather’s influence on Japanese beauty. Of course, I like Western beauty and I think that it is wonderful. My first foreign collection was held in Rome. However, it is sure that Western beauty is a bit further for me, who grew up well exposed to Japanese beauty. The history of Western clothes is very long but the one of Japanese clothes is for only one hundred years. Therefore, when it comes to the aspect of clothes’ culture accumulated by long history, we cannot possibly come close to the West. Then, what is there in Japan not in the West? It is that of the Japanese national costume, the culture of “Japanese clothes”. It has a long history. It  is composed of distinctive beauty by folding like origami, and the characteristic way of wearing by joining several patterns from a flat cloth, is rare in the world. I had this sense at my grandfather’s kimono fabric shop. In short, “ideal beauty” has been established in me by the affection to Japanese beauty since childhood. It is my motto that I take outside aggressively by adding “Japanese beauty”, adopting the root of beauty sense and creating my personality from the Japan ways, collaborated with the Western. It is because I have my background for Japanese beauty, cultivated from my childhood added to my own “ideal beauty” to arrive at this idea.
 
What is the influence from your mother?
Hiroko Koshino:
What I learned from my mother are three things―“strong determination”, “patience” and “helpfulness”. My sisters and I are all designers. Of course, we are also rivals because we are sisters. Actually, this was my mother’s strategy. She raised us, competing among each other. We worked together, thinking about not losing while comparing among ourselves. In reality, my mother dreamed about having her own brand. Finally, she was able to establish her own brand when she was 75 years old. Her line of brand was clothes for senior citizens’ clothes. When I saw her collection, I was surprised because she picked out only the good sense of fashion from each of her three daughters’, and incorporated them for her target market. I got annoyed and said, “How much pain do you think we have taken to establish our own styles? You only took our good points, but you do not have your original idea.” Then, she responded, “It is because of my originality that I gave birth to you.” (laugh). I also debuted as an artist earnestly at the age of 75, the same age as my mother established her own brand. I set up and showed my artwork at the site of Nishimura’s picture gallery, the birthplace of modern art in Ginza. This is a passion where I can do what I want to desperately do and never give up, things that I have learned from my mother. She had the strength to carry out her earnest mind, an aspect wherein she entrusted a dream which she wanted to accomplish in me, as the eldest sister. When I told her that I wanted to open my shop, she helped me by asking some people here and there. She was a workaholic who did her best for others, even though she was an “undependable parent” for our family. It was surprising that 2,500 people attended her funeral when she died. Moreover, it is general for a person to be forgotten quickly when they die, but she was chosen to be the main character of a morning NHK TV drama series. Actually, my mother would have liked it because she wanted to be made the heroine of a drama series. Her wish came true five years after since she passed away.
 
How did feel about Chinese people’s thoughts regarding fashion in relation to the show held in Shanghai?
Hiroko Koshino:
When I held the fashion show in Shanghai in 1984, I brought the same collection which were shown in the Paris Collection at that time. Actually, I told a Chinese factory that I needed a lot of embroideries when I attended this Paris Collection. Chinese people are very good with their hands. The workers of this factory inherited splendid embroidery skills obviously inside out of their work, from their parents . Thanks to their skills, I was rewarded very high evaluation results in the Paris Collection. It was an opportunity for holding a fashion show in China, to be able to inform Chinese factory workers that I received a favorable evaluation because of their embroidery at that time. Twenty Chinese and Japanese models attended the show. We rehearsed eight times because the models during that time were not used to having a show. I was surprised that eight-hundred people per show came to see it which means that people from the factory came there. Everyone seemed interested to watch the first fashion show in their lives. The shows were held three times with a total of 2400 people, composed of 800 people per show saw it and it was aired on TV all throughout the country, therefore, people all over China watched it. At that time it was only Mr. Pierre Cardin who had held a closed show with twenty attendees and that means, I was the first person to have held such a big and professional show. Therefore, it left a strong impression that when being referred to designers in China, they easily thought about Pierre Cardin and Hiroko Koshino. After that, I held a show in Beijing and many people attended. During that time, the mayor of Beijing invited me to breakfast and said that he wanted to take in something new, and remembered that he even said that fresh wind would blow into their country rapidly.
 
Please give some fashion advice to Chinese.
Hiroko Koshino:
There is a wonderful culture and a lot of good things about China. I think that there is a tendency now to have an interest on the economical aspects because of the fast-growing rapid development, but I consider that, perhaps, there will gradually be a genuine interest on culture in the future. Since there is a lot of room for improvement in China now, I recommend that they should take the good points subjectively and pursue the lifestyle appropriate to one. We had a moment when we kept paying attention to the West during Japan postwar days. However, I consider that it is important to have pride for having a splendid culture, too. Chinese has a distinct beauty from the Japanese. There is a need to make use of that distinctive lifestyle. Perhaps, I consider that it is important to not only check the trend by which we are comfortable to wear, but also to know what the most appropriate to one’s lifestyle is. Abundant time has come and many things are overflowing around me. When we distinguish ourselves among these and are surrounded only by what we like and appropriate for ourselves, perhaps this “norm core” is genuine sophistication.
 
（Caption of left page photo）
Hiroko Koshino is a successful artist in these times.
She poses in front of her work.
 
（Shop Information）
Hiroko Koshino Ginza
Wako Namikidori 4-3-13, Ginza Chuouku, Tokyo
Tel : 03-5250-4848
10:30〜19:30（Boutique）
10:30〜19:00（KH Gallery）
 
KH Gallery Ashiya
You can see it by booking in advance by this URL:
http://www.kh-gallery.com/ashiya
 
 
 
 
The shop which also sells Haute Couture opened in Nihonbashi Takashimaya last August. Please go there to find your most outstanding preference.