NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2016

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Fash

ion

NEW YORK: The annual Met Gala, one of the most anticipated events in the fashion world, will honor designer Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Gar-cons.

It will be the fi rst time the gala, and the accompanying exhibit of the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute, will focus on a single living designer since 1983, when it was Yves Saint Laurent.

The May 1 gala will be chaired by Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams, as well as Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

“Rei Kawakubo is one of the most important and infl uential designers of the past 40 years”, curator Andrew Bolton said. “By inviting us to rethink fashion as a site of constant creation, recreation, and hybridity, she has de-fi ned the aesthetics of our time”.

About 120 examples of Kawakubo’s designs will be on display.

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TOKYO: Aged just 17 and still living with her family, Rina Fukushi has seen more of the world than most Japanese schoolgirls.

She is the newest model sensation making waves in Europe and New York, wowing on the runway for the likes of Miu Miu and Marc Jacobs when not chowing down on hamburg-ers or playing with her little brother.

Discovered at 14, hailed by Vogue as “ultra-cool” and “eye-catching” with her enormous eyes, thick eyebrows and bee-sting lips, she is already the veteran of seasons in Paris, Milan and New York — giving American models Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jen-ner a run for their money.

“I always believed I could be a star from the moment I was scouted. But at the same time, I still can’t believe it’s real”, says Fukushi, delight-fully friendly and giggly, yet equally self-assured for her age.

She arrives early for an interview with AFP, taking time out from her packed schedule at Tokyo Fashion Week to meet at a chic cafe.

Quick to laugh, she is a dab hand at sign language to ease gaps in lost in Japanese-English translation, yet both shy and vivacious, faultlessly polite and totally absorbed in the world of fashion.

VintageA girl who loves to

rummage around vintage stores whenever she is travelling, she dresses for the interview in black — mini skirt from Paris, turtleneck from Japan — and brown handbag from Milan.

A silver pendant inscribed “Rina”, in Japanese script, hangs from her neck and she carries a leather jacket from Beautiful People, a Japanese label for whom she walked the previous night.

Above and below: Models present

creations by Keiichiro Yuri; Yuma

Ko-shino and Yukihiro Teshima during

Tokyo Fashion Week in Tokyo, on Oct 21.

(AP/AFP)

Keiichiro Yuri

Keiichiro Yuri

Yuma Koshino

Yuma Koshino

Keiichiro Yuri

Her schedule is punishing: she’s up at 7:00 am, rushes from show to show, working until 10:00 pm and fi nally falls into bed around 1:00 am.

In between it all, she is studying, which she does online to fi t around her schedule. When high school ends in

March she hopes to spend more time in New York, which she loved visiting in September.

“I really like the people”, she explains, laughing when asked if she thinks New York is loud and dirty com-pared to Tokyo. She loves the energy,

the diversity and the get-up-and-go attitude.

Marc Jacobs left a deep impression. She thought his spring/summer show of rainbow rastafarian locks “so cute”, al-though she dissolves into more laughter when asked what his towering, seven-inch platform boots were like to walk in. “I was really careful not to slip”.

Wearing no make-up, her face is radiant with natural beauty, and her dark brown hair falls just below the shoulder. It used to be longer, but was

cut — without warning — backstage at Alexander Wang.

As a model it pays to be professional and amenable. Fukushi is both, and besides, the soft-spoken Taiwanese-American fashion genius of New York urban cool was “so kind” to her.

“He didn’t know where I was from”, she giggled.

Described in the Japanese fashion press as “exotic” Fukushi is the daugh-ter of a Spanish- Filipino mother

and a Japanese-American father.

Born in Ma-nila, the fam-ily returned to Japan when she was a baby, and she grew up in Tokyo, although she speaks Tagalog as well as Japanese.

“I thought

she had the perfect

proportions”, says her agent Mayumi Kozakura, incredibly one of three scouts who spotted her the fi rst day she went out shopping with a

friend in Tokyo’s Harajuku district.

Also:WASHINGTON: US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will make her opera debut next month in Donizetti’s “Daughter of the Regiment” at Washington’s Kennedy Center, the opera company said on Friday.

The liberal 83-year-old justice will make a one-night appearance in the non-singing role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp when the comic opera opens on Nov 12, the Washington National Opera said in announcing the casting.

“While the opera is best known for the vocal acrobatics required of its singers, the high-comedy antics of the non-singing role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp often steal the show”, it said in a statement. (Agencies)

JAPAN

Yukihiro Teshima

Keiichiro Yuri

Keiichiro Yuri

Keiichiro Yuri

Yukihiro Teshima

Keiichiro Yuri