Actress & Founder of Archi: Sae Isshiki
SAE ISSHIKI IS A FANTASTIC MOTHER, A TALENTED ACTRESS, A SUCCESSFUL FASHION DESIGNER AND TO ME, AN INCREDIBLY SOULFUL FRIEND. SHE IS ONE OF THOSE PERSONS I GO WITHOUT SEEING FOR WEEKS AKA: BUSY WORKING MUMS, BUT IT FEELS LIKE WE ONLY JUST HOOKED UP YESTERDAY.
I WAS HONORED TO MODEL FOR HER BRAND, ARCHI, A COUPLE OF TIMES. SAE AND HER GIRL GANG CREATIVE TEAM, WANTED ME TO BE ME, A MATURE , STRONG WOMAN WHO KNOWS WHAT SHE WANTS. WHOO! HEARING THIS FROM YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS JUST AMAZINGLY HEARTWARMING.
Apart from being a positive spirit in my life, I want to introduce you to Sae and her world, which feels like “life by the sea”, fresh, free, wild and mindful.
Sae is discrete by nature. Always thinking of her family first, with her priorities set clear, managing her brand and her new shop which just opened in December 2017 in Hayama, Gibbous Shop is just a questions of time management. Something she has total control of. Sae is always inspiring others, by just being herself. It’s contagious!
You are born and raised in Tokyo, and yet, you have a very natural feel to your bohemian chic style. Have you always been attracted to the natural? Where do you like to go when the city gets too tight for you?
Put me in a place where I can place value naturally.
My office is located in Hayama, so I can dive in the ocean, I am balancing the spirit by hand works as cooking in innocent and making ceramics.
Starting a career as a successful actress at a very young age must have been exciting and maybe overwhelming at times? How did you keep grounded, then and now, with all the buzz around you?
Because I was not a child to succumb to domination, I could not become a show business product of entertainment and there was confusion in the identity (I was confused in terms of identity).
I wanted to feel as it is freedom and its original way, I went abroad to study abroad when a long vacation of school from 16 years old.
From acting to creating your own brand. When did you launch archi? What sparked you to start archi? What is your dream for archi/where do you see archi in the future?
From my young age, creating things was a place of expression for me. I was making T-shirts with silk screen and sold them at flee market at the university. I set up my company at the age of twenty, and started creating a collection.
Impressions of Archi shop and collection.
Hayama sea side, down the road from archi office and gibbous shop.
As a designer and stylist, you have to be creative all the time. What inspires you most?
I do not care about trends. I only propose what I want to wear.
The blue sea and the blue sky, the lifestyle that harmonizes with nature, that becomes familiar with comfortable materials and soft designs.
Juggling work and three kids, hats off to you Sae, what are the difficult parts and how do you over come them?
The love for my three kids, motherhood, is my vitality. So the office work space is also a place for children to play.
Since I don’t consider “archi” as a business for me, clothing making is also consistent with child bearing.
Your beauty line is like you, pure and natural, simple and straight forward. I love the packaging you chose. You collaborate with Welina. What was important for you in this collaboration?
The phases of the moon have deep connection with the body of the woman.
I want to live a life close to the moon.
The hand cream motif is the flow of water, the tidal current is also the moon’s phase.
You moved your wok space from central Tokyo to Hayama a few years ago, why that?
After the earthquake of 311, I moved to California and I didn’t have the vision anymore of expressing fashion from an office based in the city.
How do your worlds meet. From LA to the world of “archi” in Hayama ?
The house is on the mountain, so the sea is in the west, the desert in the east, the hills through which the wind passes, the sky widely and the space of the mind spreads.
Lastly, what do you do for YOUR mind, body & soul?
Surfing and Stand Up Paddle in Summer, snowy mountain in Winter.