Dear Shaded Viewers,
I first became aware of Kanya Miki, the designer behind the Kosmetique Label when I was on his jury when he was in his next to last year at the Royal Academy of Antwerp in 2001. Kanya graduated in 2002. After school Kanya worked for Walter van Beirendonck and later for John Galliano. In 2005, Kanya launched his own collection. Kanya has come a long way from the highly charged conceptual collections of his school days to his ultimately wearable and effortlessly elegant collections of today.
Kanya Miki at the Tranoi showroom in 2006
DP: Is there anything that you particularly miss about Tokyo?
KM: New ideas are accepted much more readily in Tokyo.
DP: What do you think the biggest cultural difference between the French and the Japanese?
KM: The Japanese culture is more likely to accept change and to adapt to new things at a very high speed. Trends move rapidly. In Paris, it is more important to keep older things and adapt and refine them for the future.
DP: You started your business right after school, what was your biggest challenge?
KM: Starting was not the difficult part because I did not really know what I was getting into and my innocence made me more fearless.
DP: Why did you choose fashion rather than another field and why Paris?
KM: Living in a foreign country I wanted to find a way to communicate with the people. I wanted to do something artistic and visual. I
