Why are Japanese women, especially teens, so driven by fashion trends?
For a long time, Japanese women were obsessed with American fashion. Ten years ago, every Japanese girl you saw had on a Mickey Mouse T-shirt and Levi’s; now they have their own look. Most of the cool clothing in the U.S. now has a strong Japanese influence. It’s funny, Japanese kids are taking all these weird old-school fashions and putting them together in cool ways and then American kids are copying that. Right now early-’80s Patagonia polar fleece jackets are hot. What attracted you to Portland in terms of fashion? It’s an emerging fashion city. It’s not that in tune with the New York or L.A. scene, but right now the hippie-romantic-Stevie Nicks thing is going to be huge–a funky look that Portlanders have been doing for years. But we’re much more laid back; I hope we don’t get too Stevie Nicks. You have three pairs of the original shoes of Bill Bowerman, the U of O track coach who helped create Nike. How much do you think they are worth? I have one original waffle trainer–that’s
