Style News

For Spring 22, we’re platforming the next gen of cultural catalysts. From the worlds of fashion, music, art and food, this new fam of creatives are challenging the norms, breaking down boundaries and owning their originality.

From what gets her up in the morning to what keeps her out at night, get ready to meet model and artist Yumi Carter, dressed head-to-toe in Gucci.

What gets you up in the morning?

I think breakfast gets me up in the morning. I love food. I love eating, cooking, love cooking for others. I think preparing a meal for nourishment is a really beautiful ritual if you value it.

What keeps you out at night?

My friends. I think my friends keep me out at night. Joy, a good time, feeling of freedom, when I’m really enjoying myself and loving all my friends is when I’ll stay out.

What does it mean to be free?

I’m not sure what it means to be free universally. I can’t decide what it means to anyone else. It’s so subjective to each person, but I think for myself, words like autonomy come to mind. The freedom to invest my time into things that I love and believe in feels like true freedom.

What are you listening to right now?
Music-wise, I’m listening to a lot of things that help my focus and are almost adjacent to silence. There’s an artist called Anna Roxanne, which I’m loving. She has a song called Small Valley that has field notes from her hometown. It’s very reminiscent of the kind of sounds I hear back in my grandma’s village in Japan, which makes me feel less far from there. Closer. And mentally like I can travel there when I can’t physically.

What three words encapsulate you?

I don’t know what other people would say but I think maybe patient, I think I’ve gotten pretty good at that. Patient, curious. I think at this point in my life I’m very curious. I’ve gotten to the point where I know what really feeds my mind, what interests me, what motivates me and I’m really curious about those things and I’m keen to learn more. Curious. I’d like to say I’m optimistic, consciously. I think it would be very difficult to live without optimism. Of course, there’s times where it’s harder to be optimistic but I’d like to choose optimism when I can.

Do you have any superstitions?

I’m incredibly infatuated by Japanese folklore and the movement of spirits and their habitat and there are a lot of superstitions in Japanese culture. And whether they’re real or not, I think they bring a balance to the relationship we have with nature as humans. I think it’s quite traditionally thought of that we should respect nature as its own entity and that to an extent it’s not something to be intervened with. But in some ways, we’re just a facilitator, and I guess, it’s something that I’ve seen not always but potentially lacking in Western world where there’s more of a superiority over nature, which we normally don’t have, it’s out of our control.

Who would you haunt as a ghost?

The people I love. I would haunt my mum. As long as I can watch her and be in awe of her, I would do that endlessly.

What is something that you hate that you wish you loved?

Hate is a very strong word. Lucky that this is something that I hate and it’s not much worse, but I hate feeling cold and I come from very cold places. The UK is very cold. Hokkaido is very cold. I find it hard to brace cold water. It doesn’t mean I hate cold climates; I love the snow; I hate being cold. I love being warm amongst the snow, the best feeling is being in a piping hot spring bath amongst snow in the winter outdoors, the contrast and being immersed in that environment but being so comfortable.

What’s your barometer for success?

I feel like I was very lucky to know how long I had left with my grandma before she left, before she passed. I had the opportunity to tell her everything I wanted to tell her. And one of the things I got to ask her was what she wanted me to do, in life, and what her vision of my success would be. And she said, to live a happy life. It’s quite traditional, but to live a happy life in any way that I can find a place, be in a place where I feel calm and collected and loved and be in a place where I can share that with someone. And, she said to have children. I guess that’s open to interpretation of what children is to anyone. Whether that will be people or cats. I guess by and large it means to find peace of myself, someone to share that with and someone to pass it on to. Someone or something to pass it on to. She said don’t worry about doing something incredible and great and remarkable. She said I have a feeling you will but don’t worry about that because it’s not success. Worry about your peace and find that.

What can we expect from you in 2022?

From myself, I can expect that I’ll keep focusing on learning more about myself, my ancestors, the motherland and I am motivated to concentrate and invest more energy on becoming more knowledgeable about Japanese folklore. Finally releasing all the documentation of all the photography I did in Hokkaido. Last time I was able to be in Japan before the borders closed, I was able to capture my hometown, the shrinking village that my grandma is from, my time caring for my grandparents at the hospital. Being in a city surrounded by mountains I feel incredibly lucky to have been able, for some reason to have miraculously had the instinct to do that, the last time I was there unknowing that I wouldn’t be able to go back. And to be able to share that with people. That’s a really special project I look forward to sharing with people.