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On a recent trip to Japan, I sat down with Chie Kunishima, who is the president of edgy design brand HEAD PORTER. Head Porter is based in Harajuku and was originally the cool cousin of the classic PORTER urban hand bag and luggage brand. The brainchild of designer Hiroshi Fujiwara, Katsuyuki Yoshida (PORTER), Susumu Hasegawa, Kou Kuwahata and Chie. The brand is now evolving into a full fledged fashion line with clothing, accessories and bags. In her cozy, dog filled design studio she showed me some of her cool designs.
How long have you been with Head Porter?
Hiroshi was an old friend of mine from when I was 18 and the people from Porter were good friends we used to go out with. At first we really liked the "Tanker" series so we produced a navy version which you could only buy in Harajuku. From then on, we started to come up with new designs and series like "Black Beauty".
Who are your heroes in design?
Arne Jacobsen and Charles and Ray Eames.