Junko Shimada, the longtime established Japanese designer in Paris has been pushing the presentations of her collections in the past few seasons with the help of the artistic direction duo The Bowling Club. For A/W 09, at the Espace Pierre Cardin, a fairytale that was at once both classical and futuristic took place. The collection of mohair knits, head-masks, heeled moon boots, quilted baby doll dresses and printed kimonos only served to reiterate Shimada’s faraway and eclectic journey that was inspired by Adrienne Ségur’s fairytail illustrations. We speak to Junko Shimada about the show’s conception.
See more backstage images of the show by Chiara Santarelli here.

Dazed  Digital: How did you and Prinz Gholam come up with the choreography for the video ?
Junko Shimada: We've been collaborating for 3 seasons with Pierre Guillaume and Mathieu Massat of Bowling Club (graphic design agency). They handle the conception of our fashion shows/presentations. We are friends; sort of like a family. We see each other often for work but also for play.
They presented us the performance work of Prinz Gholam. Then we met the artists and immediately we felt close, we spoke the same language. We agreed on what we would create for the fashion show - it had to be beautiful, profound, spontaneous, even a little awkward because that gives a certain charm, a little bizarre, absurd, and acrobatic...then we went to work.
During the fittings before the show it was magic. The Prinz Gholam's choices of poses was so precise and their reflection surrounding their work immediately created confidence in the models. The models participated in the project very naturally. It was a beautiful encounter. We're delighted to know them today.

DD: Which paintings/movies did you want to reference but didn’t get a chance to ?
JS: "Gabrielle D'Estrees and One of Her Sisters" by the Second School of Fontainebleau; erotic but too well-known
 
DD: Futuristic fairytale is the perfect way to describe this collection – what inspired this escapism ?
JS: Dune, The Beauty and the Beast by Cocteau, The Androids in Search of Humanity by Philip K. Dick, the illustrations by Adrienne Segur, The Infant of Spain by the painter Velasquez, the paralyzed silhouettes by Giorgio de Chirico, Japanism, the 19th century, Ray Caesar....

DD: You’re one of the most established Japanese designers living in Paris and you’ve explored so many different themes in previous collections – how would you describe the signature style of
Junko Shimada ?
JS: We are three designers, Francois Agostini, Christophe corbier and myself.
We've been working together for nearly 30 years now, so we've grown up together. The Junko Shimada style resembles us and we're dedicated to that faithfulness.
The creature of our style is implacable, innocent, fragile, deep, on the razor's edge, sexual, spacey; she doesn't follow any rules, clichés or trends. She is free. She is primitive.

DD: Your shoes get a lot of attention from the press – how did you about developing the heeled moonboots for A/W 09 ?
JS: Always go higher.

DD: Is there a Junko Shimada muse ?
JS: Life.

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