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True Colors FASHION

Mari Azuma x Vintage Fashion x WHILL

Mari Azuma x Vintage Fashion x WHILL

A collaboration between Mari Azuma, a model in her 70s who started her modeling career at the age of 17, and WHILL, an electric wheelchair maker. The vision of Mari coming down the runway elegantly in her high fashion outfit on a WHILL overturns the image of the wheelchair as a tool only for people with disabilities. It becomes a personal mobility device that can be used by anyone for commuting, just as you would a bicycle.

Backstage Interviews by Yoichi Ochiai

  • Japanese and English subtitles icon Japanese and English subtitles
  • Japanese Sign Language translation icon Japanese Sign Language translation

Wheel Power: Going Places With Personal Mobility Devices

Mari Azuma x Masahiro Toriyama (WHILL Inc.)

Audio description (JP only) Audio description
(JP only)

Please watch the uncut version here for audio guide and live commentary.

Profile

  • [MODEL]
    Mari Azuma

    Mari Azuma made her modeling debut in 1967 at the age of 17. She has worked in advertising, commercial films, fashion magazines, and as a show model. She gained 10 years of experience as a haute couture model from the age of 19. In 1977, she made her debut at the Paris Collection, appearing in shows for numerous designer brands such as Issey Miyake, Thierry Mugler, and Jean-Paul Gaultier, laying the foundation for Japanese models to enter the Paris Collection. Today, she continues to display her unique talents as a painter and lecturer beyond the framework of modeling, and her overwhelming presence is supported by many fans.

    Mari Azuma Instagram

  • [ENGINEER]
    Masahiro Toriyama

    Masahiro, previously an exterior designer at Mazda, joined WHILL’s Design and Branding team in 2017 and is involved in all aspects of WHILL’s design. The company aims to develop wheelchairs that are functional and designed well, in response to the experience of countless wheelchair users who say they are hesitant to leave their homes due to inaccessible infrastructure or the psychological barriers of having to use a wheelchair in public. WHILL’s goal is to harness the power of design to break down these barriers so that wheelchair users can commute independently, conveniently and with confidence.

    WHILL Inc.

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True Colors Festival

TCF is a long-running international festival of performing arts. We celebrate diversity and inclusion, and embrace the fact that we are One World, One Family. We choose the arts as our platform, for its power to move, inspire and heal.

As a festival, TCF brings people together to generate exchanges, innovation and creativity; and transform the way we relate to each other.

Presented by The Nippon Foundation, TCF brings diverse artists and audiences together through concerts, documentaries, music videos, film screenings, children's programs, musicals, workshops and other activities. Since 2006, festivals have been organized in Southeast Asia and Japan, with more than 1,200 artists from more than 30 countries connecting with a global audience in more than 80 countries.

TCF invites you to journey with us, to enjoy, experience, share and spread our consciousness of being One World, One Family.

Monthly Recommendations - February

By True Colors Festival Team

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