WWD: There must have been a point at which you said, “I’m good at this, I have something to say.”
R.K.: For me, I am not a fashion designer. I use fashion as a business. I never thought, “I am a fashion designer.” It’s a material to use in a business. Its an accident that I use fashion.
Adrian Joffe: She said, “Please translate correctly.” So give me time. [Joffe then questioned Kawakubo again and repeated her answer.]
R.K.: It was an accident that I used fashion as a way to make a business. It wasn’t a decision [to become a fashion designer]. It was a material for making a business.
WWD: I think I understand that. At the same time, you could have been really bad at it, you could have had nothing to say. How did you find and develop your aesthetic?
R.K.: I have never [lost] that feeling that I use clothes to make a business; I design the company. So part of that is making the clothes. Do you mean that the clothes started selling? Is that what you mean?
WWD: I want to get to the business aspect, too. But I mean, creatively…
R.K.: I understand what you’re trying to say. I came to the point that I could make a business, a successful business using clothes as a material. And as the business got more successful, I realized that by sticking to my values of making the clothes that didn’t exist before, [I would succeed] in having a business [and that] has continued ever since then.
WWD: Making clothes that didn’t exist before. Is that the baseline when you speak of house “values”?
R.K.: Basically that is it, that’s the main [thing], basically.
https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/the-originals-rei-kawakubo-on-the-genius-grind-1203137382/
