After attending the presentation of the last collection by Facetasm, we wanted to find out more about Hiromichi Ochiai’s background, interests and experience – a very Japanese designer, who is not only cautious in his answers, but who lets us glimpse a bit of his austere personality through his words.
The interview was a direct immersion. When we asked Hiromichi for a self-definition, he replied –becoming one with the place he inhabits– just by saying: “My life in Tokyo.” When we tried to find out what he thinks about the implications of being a designer today, he was straightforward: “I don’t know yet.” However, knowing that few words, many silences and infinite meanings define communication on that side of the world, we can try to guess the reasons that move him as a designer through these modest words.
Surprisingly, when Hiromichi talked about his professional choice (fashion designer) he explained: “I had wanted to be a fashion designer since I was a teenager, when I was absent-mindedly thinking about my future.” On the contrary to many designers, his decision does not look like a random choice or an intuited path, with doubts and ups and downs, but rather as a premeditated and studied plan. He picked a career, studied at the prestigious Bunka fashion college, and successfully devoted to a profession.
In 2007, after 9 years of experience in the industry, Hiromichi created his own brand, Facetasm, a project that keeps growing. As Hiromichi explained: “the last collection gave us an opportunity to have a show in Milano for 2016 SS season, with Armani’s support,” and they are planning to do an installation at DSM NY.
His revealing self-definition (“My life in Tokyo”) and his background clearly expose that Hiromichi’s referents and inspiration are limited to something, so vast in possibilities and perceptions and so easy to explain, like the subjectivity of living in such an eclectic and contrasted city. “I stock my impressed feelings naturally by living in Tokyo. That is my inspiration towards design.” A concrete subjectivity living in a concrete city, something that we can appreciate in the definition of his last collection:
Ambiguous daze in my ambiguous days
A Dull light.
Silly body temperature.
Time and things fade away.
It is too late when you have seen the scenery.
The days that were beautiful, will soon be destroyed.
Who will revive?
I cannot be here anymore.
The anxiety that hides in the bottom of my heart is now becoming bigger.
I have already taken a big step.
What is “New”?
A Dull light.
Silly body temperature.
Time and things fade away.
It is too late when you have seen the scenery.
The days that were beautiful, will soon be destroyed.
Who will revive?
I cannot be here anymore.
The anxiety that hides in the bottom of my heart is now becoming bigger.
I have already taken a big step.
What is “New”?
Remembering his show at the last Tokyo Fashion Week, we can clearly distinguish the Tokyo beating – its streets and way of life. The porcelain dolls with impassive faces, the balancing and movement game, the space and the pieces, the pinstripes of the salary man in asymmetric shapes, the oversized Japanese traditional pieces, the overlapping of fabric sheets, the pieces tied with knots or the details of the reflective vests of Japanese labourers working in the construction sites spread all around the city.
We have slightly unveiled who Hiromichi Ochiai is, but without revealing more than necessary. Sometimes there is no need for big words to describe yourself nor big descriptions to explain your work, although sometimes that can help you getting known. Now, after this short intrusion, we can only wait for the next steps and new proposals in which Hiromichi is already working.
