Origin

I was born in Osaka. I cut hair for the first time in 1993, in a salon there. I moved to London in 1997, and from 2000 I worked in session hairstyling across fashion and advertising: years on set beside photographers, editors, models and stylists, with a face in front of me and very little time to decide what to do with it.

Hair taught line.
The camera taught distance.
The face taught consequence.

A frame works the way make-up does. An outward line pulls the shape of the face. An inward line changes how the parts of it read.

The overall design belongs to taste. Like a hairstyle, it is the wearer's choice, not mine. What I do is alter a small shape so that it suits the face in front of me.

From 2016 I made things between assignments: headpieces, combs, small structures in metal, wood and composite. I brought in digital cutting because it gives me the shape I intended, and at that stage the intended shape is what matters most. Everything after it stayed at the bench.

In 2022 I started on eyewear from scratch.

I spent twenty-nine years on how people are seen before I made a frame. Compressed paper composite is the material I stopped looking past.

It cut cleanly.
It held an edge.
It gathered depth through use.
It had an aesthetic of its own.

Each piece is recorded by serial. Not as inventory. As part of an archive.