UNHINDERED
/Show Day
DAY1, OCT22
/Social Media
Designer Profile
Mia Hanaoka is a Japanese, Osaka-based designer graduate from Blanche Macdonald in Vancouver. She is a designer who has been working in a retail store since high school, and has been working at select shops, and as an experienced buyer for 3-4 years.
About the Collection
This concept of the collection explores the influence of feelings and conflict within oneself. Specifically spotlighting the small world of school, especially teenagers who are in between youth and adulthood. They have so many complex emotions within themselves. Many feelings of an uncertain future with limited time in student life, and only one thing is clear; that they have to be responsible for themselves. It feels as though they are in a box where nobody is around to lead them in the right way to grow. Mia Hanaoka expresses those complicated feelings by designing “SCHOOL UNIFORM”.
About the Brand
Unhindered_studio is a reminder of the “little things” in our days. Through many experiences, times, memories and thoughts. It emphasizes that throughout it all, we have to live in the present moment. We have to value the time NOW. But in the process, “a wavering feeling and inner conflict over yourself and your future" is the only thing one may be living in, and “that moment” goes by. Life is unhindered. But we can live “that moment“ in some way.
Unhindered_studio will be the reminder of those “forgotten things”. To remind people that life is a journey with many trails.
PREVIOUS COLLECTIONS
What inspired your approach to fashion design?
Mia Hanaoka developed her perspective through years of experience in fashion retail, including work at select shops and several years as a buyer. Her background contributes to the perspective she now brings to UNHINDERED.
How would you describe your design style?
UNHINDERED uses clothing to explore personal experiences, memories, emotions, and moments that can easily be forgotten. The brand approaches fashion as a reminder to value the present while acknowledging uncertainty and inner conflict.
What can people expect from your Vancouver Fashion Week collection?
The collection explores the complicated emotions teenagers experience between youth and adulthood. Feelings of uncertainty, responsibility, and limited time in student life are translated into clothing through the familiar language of school uniforms.
Why did you choose school uniforms to represent the emotions of teenagers?
I didn’t have good experiences at Japanese school, while my experience at Blanche was very different. That contrast inspired me to use the school uniform as a theme and explore the unnecessary rules surrounding student life.
How does the collection explore the transition between youth and adulthood?
The collection focuses on teenagers caught between childhood and adulthood, a period shaped by uncertainty, limited time, and growing responsibility. Their internal conflicts become the emotional foundation of the collection and its interpretation of student life.