My personal style signifier is hard to define. I sometimes wear my own work for openings or special occasions, but other than that I usually wear black. My speciality is traditional embroidered Japanese kimonos, which I like to combine with contemporary styles. I have a big passion for their craftsmanship and started collecting them when I was 23. I now have more than 20, bought in Japan, online and at a special store in Amsterdam called Van Hier Tot Tokio (From Here To Tokyo). My oldest is probably from the 1800s.
The last thing I bought and loved was a pair of United Nude shoes. I’ve collaborated with them for many of my runway collections over the years. These recent ones are black and like a cross between a platform shoe and a futuristic sneaker. It’s a nice combination.
The best souvenir I’ve brought home is a sculpture from Japan by the artist Heishiro Ishino. It’s a white skeletal structure in a sort of a nautilus shape; a hybrid of recreations of different kinds of animals and human bones. When people see it for the first time they think they are looking at a skeleton of a very rare creature. It reminds me that this powerful force of evolution keeps on going and that we’re just one little part of a moment in time.
