PROFILE
Born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1972. In 1993, he entered the textile department of the design faculty at Tama Art University. He began making shoes on his own while still a student in 1994, and in 1996 launched "archi doom" with the support of a shoe manufacturer. After graduating from college, he changed his name to MIHARAYASUHIRO and debuted his collection in Paris in 2007, becoming widely known as a global fashion brand. In 2020, he will launch "General Scale", an environmentally responsible brand.
PROFILE
Born in Tokyo in 1989. After graduating from the Department of Information Design at Tama Art University, he joined DRAWING AND MANUAL, where he creates images across genres from music videos to commercials to fashion videos, etc. For music videos, he has created works for Mr. Children, Gen Hoshino, Masaki Sugata, Genshi Yonezu, and other well-known artists. He is currently a part-time lecturer at Tama Art University.
Explanations are moderate.
This is the first time you and Mr. Mihara have worked together, right? How did you explain the product to Mr. Hayashi?
Mihara:Actually, I didn't talk about the clothes in detail, just the concept. I explained again that the world is a bit dark right now in Corona, and students are feeling depressed because they cannot attend classes, so the collection focuses on students and art college students, as if to dispel the darkness with creativity. The dark mood of the world reminded me of the fact that I graduated from university just a few years after the bursting of the bubble economy.
Also, unlike my own brand "Mihara Yasuhiro," "g.u." targets younger customers, so I had already decided to shoot at Tama Art University (my alma mater) before I made the offer to Mr. Hayashi. When I asked Mr. Hayashi about it, he clearly said, "We haven't even started location scouting yet," which made me think that he was a scary person (laughs).
Hayashi: When you made the offer, was it because of location or other issues that you couldn't get a clear picture of what you wanted to do?
Forest:I am a graduate of Tama Art University, and I still go there as an instructor, so it is like a garden for me, so I had an idea of what I wanted to show in the video. However, there were many elements that needed to be captured, such as the details of the clothing, as well as what I wanted to show in this video, and it was difficult to include them in the one-minute length that I had originally planned.
We understand that the meetings were conducted online, and that you actually met face-to-face for the first time at the site. How did Mr. Hayashi's work on site appear to you?
Mihara:I was impressed by the delicate work that went into every detail of the images, such as changing the covers of the books on the bookshelf.
Mihara-san, you distribute videos through "Mihara Yasuhiro," don't you? Did you make use of that knowledge?
Mihara:We are vulgar (laughs). The video depends on the purpose of what you want to show or what you want to show. In this case, I wanted to show the attitude and philosophy. After all, products and details can be shown in lookbooks, so I don't think it's a good idea to explain everything in the video. It is very difficult to make a video that shows clothes, and we ourselves get bored while making a video that is just beautiful or cool. Whether it is to show a philosophy, as in this case, or to show functionality, as in the case of a sports brand, the various ways of thinking of the brand will be revealed, so we can't afford to lose interest in the images.
I see.
Mihara:How often does a video leave a lasting impression even though it's only a few seconds and a few frames? It is probably easy to shoot cool images, but I think it is important to convey more than that. That is, whether you want to convey the other side of the clothes, the designer's way of thinking, social issues, and so on. In other words, the "g.u." video can be expressed in one line. In other words, "students living campus life. But I wanted to convey more than just beautiful images.
Hayashi: Did you have any discussions in the meeting about what you wanted to convey beyond the clothes?
Forest:No, there wasn't (laughs).
Mihara:I had an idea. I thought it would be better if I gave it to Mr. Hayashi in the form of a clay-like prototype and let him make the rest.
Hayashi-san, how did you go about shaping the clay?
Forest:In fact, since we had the product and the words, we understood rather quickly what we wanted to convey. We then thought about how to make the video not feel too long, what information we wanted to include, and so on. The more information we wanted to include in the video, the longer it would naturally take, and what the brand was thinking would come out in the video, but I could sense what Mr. Mihara was thinking, including the essential ideas I mentioned earlier, in the content.
Hayashi-san, you have produced many music videos.
Forest:What we need to do is the same. We directors, after all, are thinking about how to make the subject look good and how to get it across properly to people. In the case of music, we always think about where to focus on the music, and in the case of fashion, where to focus on the fashion.
