"I once traveled to the vast grasslands of Africa, which are called Serengeti on the Tanzanian side and Maasai Mara on the Kenyan side. I came face to face with nature, the kind you usually see only on TV where many kinds of wild animals live in peace. But of all the wonderful scenes that I saw, those that really stayed in my mind were a lone tree that had put its roots down in hard earth with not a blade of grass in sight and the clothes of the women of the native African tribes. From a distance, the tree looked like a white bird gazing at the sky. Up close it was a curious combination of all colors, from dark brown to grey, a color that couldn't be named. We've always called this "wood color" without really thinking about it. The colorful cloths wrapped around the bodies of the African women, as straight and beautiful as that tree, were so beautiful that I wanted to take them back to my studio right away. Based on the colors and textures that I experienced back then, I created a collection on the theme of 'Africa.' The garments may have been created by my hands but I consider them to be the product of the people and nature of Africa."
"I once traveled to the vast grasslands of Africa, which are called Serengeti on the Tanzanian side and Maasai Mara on the Kenyan side. I came face to face with nature, the kind you usually see only on TV where many kinds of wild animals live in peace. But of all the wonderful scenes that I saw, those that really stayed in my mind were a lone tree that had put its roots down in hard earth with not a blade of grass in sight and the clothes of the women of the native African tribes. From a distance, the tree looked like a white bird gazing at the sky. Up close it was a curious combination of all colors, from dark brown to grey, a color that couldn't be named. We've always called this "wood color" without really thinking about it. The colorful cloths wrapped around the bodies of the African women, as straight and beautiful as that tree, were so beautiful that I wanted to take them back to my studio right away. Based on the colors and textures that I experienced back then, I created a collection on the theme of 'Africa.' The garments may have been created by my hands but I consider them to be the product of the people and nature of Africa."