The day I met Fumina was back in 2019 October during Taipei Fashion week, we set next to each other during the dinner, we chatted almost all night and swap informations about our life rather than work, and I spotted her fashion style and clever sense of mix and match during these 48 hours. We kept in touch and the next thing we knew the pandemic hit and all shows called off, but this did not stop Fumina, she and her husband decided moving to Copenhagen because that’s something they both wanted for a long time. What a brave decision to make during this difficult time and now they live in this beautiful apartment filled with light, Fumina continued her fashion editor with Elle and in fact covid was the silver-lining that made her and her company realised that she doesn’t need to be in Japan to do her job, so here we talked about her journey of being a fashion editor and some fun facts, culture shock since moving to Copenhagen.
KF: How did you get into fashion, did you study fashion at university?
FT: I actually did not study fashion but English literature at uni, I was from Nakasaki a small town in Japan, I moved to Tokyo when I entred university. I loved writing when I was a child, and studying literature I had to write a lot of essays and reviews which helped my job now as an editor.
KF: How did you develop this amazing fashion sense when you did not study fashion?
FT: I think my fashion sense is from my grandmother, she is a very stylish person, and she bought me many fancy clothes when I was young, I think it made me fall in love with fashion because of her. And I really loved English when I was a child, in fact when I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a book translator, so growing up I started to think how I can combine my passion for fashion, and writing and translating all together, so I thought an international fashion magazine may be the best job for me.
KF: So now you live in Copenhagen, how do you enjoy living there and if you can share your experience as expats and tips of adopting the culture?
FT: 2017 I think it was my first time coming to Copenhagen for vacation, I fell in love with Copenhagen with the atmosphere and beautiful building and the nature and food. When I was a child, living aboard is a big dream, same for my husband. And we thought maybe we should live in Copenhagen some day, and we waited (and it happened)… Everything is new to me, so fun.
KF: Any type of culture shock or things are just so different from Japan?
FT: In terms of cultural shock, there’s a funny traditional in Denmark, if a person who turns and is unmarried, people spread cinnamon powder all over the birthday person’s body. I don’t know why they do this and it looks crazy, I saw this 2 -3 times in Copenhagen and it is so funny for me to see. Another thing is not a culture shock but it’s nice and different than Japan is that everything is digitalised, is much more advanced than Japan. Of course we can use credit card or paying apps in Japan, but there are a lot of places we need to pay with cash, so I was used to bring a lot of cash in Japan. However since I moved to Copenhagen, I haven’t used cash, I only use paying app or card which is so useful. Denmark has old side and new side, for example they preserve their old buildings but they make everything else digital which I like this contrast.
KF: So what do you enjoy the most living in Copenhagen?
FT: I think I love the most is the nature, although Japan has beautiful nature too, but it is extremely different, the Danish nature is so different with a lot of sceneries. During this lockdown we spent 1- 2 weeks in countryside, also we support local business by doing a lot take aways, it’s so fun to exploring restaurants and cafes in Copenhagen. From this week we can sit in restaurants if we have Corona pass…it’s a digital pass to identify if you are clear from the virus then you can sit inside the restaurants.
KF: How has the pandemic affected your job being a fashion editor?
FT: The biggest change since Covid is that I can work remotely. Before Covid, I never worked from home, but since Covid, I started working from home and that’s also way I can move to Copenhagen and still continuing my job, which is a silver lining. Of course work-wise it is not easy to gather models, photographers, stylists to do shoots but we are trying our best.
KF: And as a fashion editor, how do you see the fashion shows change? Will we go back to when we had lots of shows again?
FT: Yes it’s a difficult question, I think it needs some kind of balance, it won’t be like before but it will be a new normal to have events combined.
KF: And before we moved on to food, do you have any styling tips? Any favourite brands right now?
FT: My style is mixed between street and pastel colours, actually one of my background is street dancer (WOW) same as my husband, so I love wearing sweatshirts and caps, casual. I love street wear with colours like pink, yellow, blue, a little bit scandi, scandi colour palettes, I mixed with high fashion boots or bags like Saint Laurent boots, Marc Jacobs bag or Coach bag. And a brand I love is Samsoe Samsoe.
KF: Finally food, what do you cook at home?
FT: Actually I am not so good in the kitchen but I love food, sometimes I cook KhaoManGai, it’s a chicken dish that is street food from South East Asia, you just put the chicken on the rice and that’s done! Super easy and delicious.
*KhaoManGai is a famous street food dish from Thailand, here is a recipe example.
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中文：
我遇見Fumina的那天是2019年10月的台北時裝週，我們在晚宴上相遇，我們幾乎通宵聊天，交換了有關我們生活而不是工作的信息，在這短短的48個小時內我發現了她強烈的時尚風格和厲害的拼搭感，就是一個時尚編輯。
我們之後一直保持聯繫，然後疫情流感，所有時尚活動都停止了，但這並沒有阻止Fumina，她和她先生仍然搬到哥本哈根，因為那是他們倆長期以來的夢想。即便在這個艱難的時刻還是做了這個勇敢的決定，如今他們住在這間充滿光線的美麗公寓中，Fumina繼續與Elle擔任時尚編輯，疫情也證實了把一份工作做好不見得一定要坐在辦公室。我們談到了她成為時尚編輯的經歷以及自搬到哥本哈根等一切文化趣事。
KF：您是如何進入時尚界的，您是在大學期間學習時尚的嗎？
FT：我實際上不是在時裝學院學習，而是在大學學習英語文學，我來自日本中崎的一個小鎮，上大學後就搬到了東京。我從小就喜歡寫作，在學習文學時，我不得不寫很多論文和評論，這對我現在擔任編輯的工作有所幫助。
KF：當您不學習時尚時，您是如何發展這種驚人的時尚感的？
FT：我認為我的時尚感來自祖母，她是一個非常時尚的人，她在我年輕的時候就給我買了很多漂亮的衣服，我想這是因為她讓我愛上了時尚。而且我小時候真的很喜歡的英語，事實上，當我上小學時，我想當一名圖書翻譯，所以長大後我開始思考如何將自己對時尚的熱情結合在一起，並進行寫作和翻譯，所以我認為國際時尚雜誌可能對我來說是最好的工作。
KF：那麼，現在你住在哥本哈根，你如何享受哥本哈根的生活，如果你可以分享自己的移民和採用文化的秘訣與經驗？
FT：2017年，這是我第一次來哥本哈根度假，我愛上了哥本哈根的氛圍，美麗的建築以及自然和美食。小時候，到國外生活是一個很大的夢想，對我丈夫來說也是一樣。我們認為也許應該有一天住在哥本哈根，然後我們慢慢等著（終於去年年底發生了……）一切對我來說都是新鮮的，很有趣。
KF：任何形式的文化衝擊或事情都與日本有很大不同嗎？
FT：就文化衝擊而言，丹麥有一個有趣的傳統，如果一個人25歲而未婚，朋友和家人會灑肉桂粉在他全身身上。我不知道他們為什麼這樣做，而且看起來很瘋狂，我在哥本哈根見過2-3次，對我來說真是太有趣了。另一件事不是文化衝擊，但它與日本的不同之處在於，就是一切都數位化，比日本先進得多。當然，我們可以在日本使用信用卡或付費應用程序，但是在很多地方我們都需要用現金付款，所以我習慣了在日本帶來很多現金。但是自從我移居哥本哈根以來，我沒有使用現金，只使用了非常有用的付費應用程序或卡。丹麥既有舊面也有新面，例如，他們保留了舊建築，但將其他所有東西都很數位，我喜歡這種對比。
KF：那麼，您在哥本哈根最享受的生活是什麼？
FT：我認為我最喜歡的是大自然，儘管日本也有美麗的大自然，但情況卻截然不同，丹麥的大自然有很多不同的風景。在這次停工期間，我們在鄉村度過了1-2週，我們也常常訂外食外賣來支持當地業務，在哥本哈根探索餐館和咖啡館真是太有趣了。從本週開始，如果我們有Corona通行證，我們就可以坐在餐廳裡……這是一種數位通行證，用於識別您是否已清除病毒，然後可以坐在餐廳內。
KF：疫情流行如何影響了您作為時裝編輯的工作？
FT：自Covid以來最大的變化是我可以遠程工作。在加入Covid之前，我從來沒有在家工作過，但是自從Covid以來，我就開始在家工作，這也使我可以搬到哥本哈根並繼續我的工作，這是疫情反而帶來的好處。當然，從工作上來說，邀約模特，攝影師，造型師進行拍攝並不容易，但我們只能盡力而為。
KF：在我們最後討論食物之前，聊聊你的造型技巧吧？現在有沒有最喜歡的品牌？
FT：我的風格介於街頭色彩和柔和色彩之間，實際上我和我先生的背景之一是街頭舞者（WOW），所以我喜歡穿休閒的運動衫和帽子。我喜歡街頭服裝，例如粉紅色，黃色，藍色，一點點scandi，scandi調色板，我混搭了高級時裝靴子或包袋，例如Saint Laurent靴子，Marc Jacobs包或Coach袋。我喜歡的品牌是Samsoe Samsoe。
KF：最後來聊食物，你在家做飯嗎？
FT：其實上我不太會做菜，但是我喜歡食物，有時候我會煮KhaoManGai，這是東南亞街頭食物的雞肉，你只是把雞肉放在米飯上就做完了！超級容易和美味。
查看Fumina的作品和風格可以追蹤他的Instagram，並在此處關注她的YouTube頻道。
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Kuofi O'Connor 
Elle Japan editor pursuing her dream of Nordic living is difficult, especially during the pandemic. Thank you 😊