The project focused on women who had moved to Tokyo from other regions of Japan. I surveyed more than 100 women from all over the countryside in Japan. I asked them how their views of Tokyo and that of their hometown had changed before and after coming to Tokyo in the context of social issues in Japan, such as peer pressure, antiquated social customs, and women’s social advance. The women have tough lives in Tokyo moving between assimilation and dissimilation in their minds. Their responses revealed how a sense of freedom that they experienced in the city changed their relationship to fashion. Sometimes, fashion was a way to rebel against the conservative views of their hometown; sometimes, they felt released to develop a style that expressed their individuality once they moved to Tokyo. I conveyed their responses to the public through my collection visually, because people tend to ignore these problems if they cannot visualize them.
