When I first participated in the salon that Hortensia organized, it was a matter of course, as I was not acquainted with her. She revolutionized the fashion world by launching the Workshop salon, but she eventually left. She then started a new salon, Showroom Hortensia de Hutten, and the first time I met her was at the second session. I think it happened on the last day of the show. Hortensia appeared unexpectedly, stopped in the front of my booth and took a look at the FERAL FLAIR collection. Then she came closer and started to inspect the clothes. Her calm expression suddenly turned fierce. A serious look came over her face, as if she was a scholar who had been posed a difficult question. At that moment, I recognized that the atmosphere had obviously changed. I felt a bit strange, as if my collection had been completely enveloped in her aura. And then the real surprise happened. She put her hands on the hanging clothes, held them by both sides, and turned them toward her, then inched her face closer to them. Then came a spectacle I'd never seen before. She touched the clothing cautiously, as if she were touching precious jewelry. She tenderly picked up a garment as if she were a curator in a museum handling a delicate work of art. She fixed her stare on it. Her action and posture were so elegant and beautiful, like music. And then she cast her gaze over all the clothes. It seemed like she was trying not to miss a single detail on the garments, or the creator's passion.

She had been scouting for and training new designers for a long time; probably, many young designers didn't have the technique and their creations were not high quality. But they had thoughts and passion, and were trying to play the fashion world game as best they could, creating their masterpieces by themselves as if trying to trump a king. I think that Hortensia had seen many such creations, and as a result she came into contact with clothing in her very own way, trying to discern the thoughts and passion behind their creation; probably having made up her mind to approach those designers with the same level of passion and energy on equal terms. In a salon, where a massive quantity of clothing is being shown, many people don't usually handle clothes roughly, nor very politely. But I had never seen anyone who treated clothing like Hortensia. Of course she remains the only person I have ever seen do that. The only one who approaches clothing sincerely and can change the atmosphere by concentrating on understanding the creator's passion; the one who treats clothes with the same passion as hers. That's who she is. When Yohji Yamamoto was still a newcomer to the Paris collections, he showed a collection of destroyed clothing. He recalled that, "Paris newspapers and magazines criticized my collection severely, with more passion than I had shown, so in the next collection, I destroyed the clothes even more." I think that designers don't grow up all by themselves, but also thanks to the passion that people feel about their creations .

When I first applied to participate in Hortensia's salon, I had to send some samples. She told me that she wanted to buy one of the skirts I had sent in, so she actually bought FF clothes before I took part in her Salon. Thereafter, she bought something from the FF collection every season, during the Paris show. After we stopped showing in Paris, she kept buying our collection, from the photos on our website.

A couple of days ago, I received an e-mail from her saying, "I think that about 80% of my clothes are from you!!!!" Reading this, I nearly wept with joy.

Isshi Kanamaru 3. 2013