Urban Safari: Natsumi Ivaraki

At the recent Hello Shibuya event, we chanced upon URBAN SAFARI, an accessory label which features handmade animals. It may look like advanced handicraft to some but if you look closer, the work is amazingly delicate and realistic.  I’m not animal lover but I was very impressed.

I think nothing expresses the spirit of the label better than the poem by its creator.

I want to be like them:

their lively body, their beautiful curves,

their defying eyes, their cool figures.

 

I want to live like they do: with such unflattering,

unperturbed, unyielding and lofty mind.

 

Do they also have the moment:

when they are likely to be suffocated by depression

 

which can never be spoken or likely to be oppressed

with jealousy or hostility?

 

It may be that they’ve torn it all up

and been making their way with their eyes set forward.

 

“I want to be strong like they are.”

 

I will live strongly with wildness,

which makes them colorful, on myself: wearing wildness.

Way cute. I’ll definitely be tempted to get one when I come across them again.

x Sybil

(Images from URBAN SAFARI)