In my last post, I wrote about how I graduated from school in Philadelphia in 1999 and started working at the atelier of haute couture designer Robert Dence in New York. Every day was filled with work, but of course I also had some time off. This time, I'd like to write about those times while reminiscing.
■Memories of my apprenticeship in New York
I lived in New York on 91st Street in Manhattan's Upper East Side. If you look at a map, it's in the upper right corner of Central Park, which is located in the very center of Manhattan. Between my rented house and Central Park, I'm in an area where the Guggenheim Museum and the Smithsonian National Design Museum are located.
The rent at the time was $1,100. My apartment was on the fourth floor and there was no elevator. The further away from the center of Manhattan you go, the cheaper it is, and the closer you get to the rivers on both sides, the East River and the Hudson River, the worse the security situation is. I lived near the East River.
If I wanted to live somewhere with better conditions, my only option was to share a room, but I wasn't good at that, so I chose this place, where I could live alone even though it was small. It was also convenient that there were hardly any Japanese people there. After all, it would be stupid to go all the way to New York and live in a place full of Japanese people. The only famous Japanese person I met during my stay there until 2007 was the stage director Amon Miyamoto.
Robert's office was in Soho, so he could take the green No. 6 train from the nearest 88th Street station without changing trains. As I wrote before, he always drew design sketches on the train.
In the morning, I would usually have a regular tall coffee ($1.65) at the only Starbucks in Soho. I would get by with just a coffee and a few cigarettes until lunchtime.
When I worked late into the night and got back near my house, I would always have Chinese food for dinner. I even had a set menu of sweet and sour pork and rice. After a while, whenever I went into a restaurant, they would bring out sweet and sour pork and rice without me even having to order it, and I remember being annoyed.
I didn't have much money on the weekends, so I often went to art museums. I would spend a lot of time there drinking tea. New York has a ton of cultural facilities, so that was great.
I also went to clothing stores because of my job. I couldn't buy anything, but I still had to try on the clothes and feel the texture of the fabric. In the winter, I was so into snowboarding that I wondered if I was crazy, and I often went snowboarding at Hunter Mountain in Albany, AL.
In my last year back in Japan, I met his wife (Shinobu Uchida, director of Muller of Yoshiokubo), who was also working in New York, and since then I've been eating a lot of Japanese food, like all-you-can-eat sushi.
Oh, that's right, I'm often asked this question, so I'll answer it. Why did I go to America instead of Paris or Milan to work in fashion? I originally went there to study film. At the time, MTV and the like were just coming on big time. I thought it would be a new career path for me.
So I went to Philadelphia to study English, and when I thought about going to college, I realized that my mother was a seamstress, and the college I was thinking of going to had a fashion department.
American fashion is of course about design, but it also has a strong business perspective. At my school, we learned a fair amount about textiles in class, but we were taught more about marketing than design. I thought that was a good thing about the American fashion industry, so I studied it.
I was determined to work there after graduation, so I was really happy when Robert invited me. I met my future partner there, so all things considered, my experience in New York is by no means a small part of my life.
Next time, I'd like to talk about Maria Kent, a Parisian fabric store that I often used when I was working at Robert's atelier. I've decided to use their fabrics for the next Muller collection, so see you next time!
■Memories of my apprenticeship in New York
I lived in New York on 91st Street in Manhattan's Upper East Side. If you look at a map, it's in the upper right corner of Central Park, which is located in the very center of Manhattan. Between my rented house and Central Park, I'm in an area where the Guggenheim Museum and the Smithsonian National Design Museum are located.
The rent at the time was $1,100. My apartment was on the fourth floor and there was no elevator. The further away from the center of Manhattan you go, the cheaper it is, and the closer you get to the rivers on both sides, the East River and the Hudson River, the worse the security situation is. I lived near the East River.
If I wanted to live somewhere with better conditions, my only option was to share a room, but I wasn't good at that, so I chose this place, where I could live alone even though it was small. It was also convenient that there were hardly any Japanese people there. After all, it would be stupid to go all the way to New York and live in a place full of Japanese people. The only famous Japanese person I met during my stay there until 2007 was the stage director Amon Miyamoto.
Robert's office was in Soho, so he could take the green No. 6 train from the nearest 88th Street station without changing trains. As I wrote before, he always drew design sketches on the train.
In the morning, I would usually have a regular tall coffee ($1.65) at the only Starbucks in Soho. I would get by with just a coffee and a few cigarettes until lunchtime.
When I worked late into the night and got back near my house, I would always have Chinese food for dinner. I even had a set menu of sweet and sour pork and rice. After a while, whenever I went into a restaurant, they would bring out sweet and sour pork and rice without me even having to order it, and I remember being annoyed.
I didn't have much money on the weekends, so I often went to art museums. I would spend a lot of time there drinking tea. New York has a ton of cultural facilities, so that was great.
I also went to clothing stores because of my job. I couldn't buy anything, but I still had to try on the clothes and feel the texture of the fabric. In the winter, I was so into snowboarding that I wondered if I was crazy, and I often went snowboarding at Hunter Mountain in Albany, AL.
In my last year back in Japan, I met his wife (Shinobu Uchida, director of Muller of Yoshiokubo), who was also working in New York, and since then I've been eating a lot of Japanese food, like all-you-can-eat sushi.
Oh, that's right, I'm often asked this question, so I'll answer it. Why did I go to America instead of Paris or Milan to work in fashion? I originally went there to study film. At the time, MTV and the like were just coming on big time. I thought it would be a new career path for me.
So I went to Philadelphia to study English, and when I thought about going to college, I realized that my mother was a seamstress, and the college I was thinking of going to had a fashion department.
American fashion is of course about design, but it also has a strong business perspective. At my school, we learned a fair amount about textiles in class, but we were taught more about marketing than design. I thought that was a good thing about the American fashion industry, so I studied it.
I was determined to work there after graduation, so I was really happy when Robert invited me. I met my future partner there, so all things considered, my experience in New York is by no means a small part of my life.
Next time, I'd like to talk about Maria Kent, a Parisian fabric store that I often used when I was working at Robert's atelier. I've decided to use their fabrics for the next Muller collection, so see you next time!