We all know that nobody has ever accomplished anything great alone. A few weeks ago, I reached out to Yuumi to ask her if she was interested in doing a collab and I was pleased to hear that her answer was "yes!". I came across her Instagram page and loved her aesthetics and what she represented. A business woman just like me, expressing her creative self, in her case through jewelry.
I didn't know a lot about her or her story until we got to meet in person the day of the shoot. I can say that it was an instant connection and I felt like we had so much in common. In my opinion this is one of the greatest things about social media.
Yuumi and I share the same passion of exploring the world. She was born in Japan and her first experience abroad was a student exchange in Belgium at the age of sixteen. When she first arrived, she could only speak about five words in French. I shared a similar experience at the age of thirteen when I moved from Brazil to Canada and couldn't speak a word of French.
After her student exchange in Belgium, she went back to Tokyo and later studied Interior Design in University. A few years into her masters, she decided to move to Argentina, learn Spanish and continue exploring the world. A six month plan turned into two years of her living there. Funnily enough, I moved to Mexico to also learn Spanish where I lived for about one year.
Yuumi has been creating jewelry as a hobby since she was around ten years old. She founded her business in 2014 and since then she has done exhibitions all over the world. She has created her online store where people can purchase her jewelry from anywhere. She is now based in Barcelona between her travels to Bali where she creates jewelry and Tokyo her original home base where she hosts various exhibitions.
Every single outfit in this shoot is paired with her jewelry. I was not surprised to see that everything paired perfectly. It was also very nice to see how the wardrobe suited her so well. We were able to create all these different outfits with only a few pieces.
There is an outfit here for every-occasion and that's my ultimate goal when designing and creating it. It's getting cold in Barcelona so let's end this post with my all-time-favorite jacket that I made 4 years ago. This jacket was made with a dead stock piece of fabric that I got at a thrift store. I had no idea what I was going to do with it but somehow I ended up creating this.
That's a wrap! I hope you've enjoyed this collaboration with Yuumi. If I were you, I would definitely check her out. Her jewelry is beautiful and it's a direct reflection of who she is inside-out.
Thank you for keeping up with the blog, I appreciate you!
With Love,
Raphaella Santana