'I’m such a nomad, and I always stay in hotel rooms…I kind of live in these very beautiful, but very generic hotels. Sometimes I’m in one place for a month, so I need to have my stuff there. I like to have toys around all the time, and different smells. I’m half Japanese so I like kawaiis and for me, candles are like toys. I bring mini ones everywhere because I like any kind of smell. I just bought these Diptyque ones at Colette the other day. And I’ve got my little zombie panda ring I designed for my pop-up store, that I wear all the time. I’ve got my Lanvin pouch I carry everything in. I always change my candles, and my perfume. I wear A *Men—Angel—by Thierry Mugler. I started wearing it when I started working for Mugler, and it really reminds me of gay clubs…when I was like, seventeen, eighteen, in Italy—everyone wore this. And I was wearing it too, I’m sure…either this or Jean Paul Gaultier. I have two or three that I always carry; I also really like Serge Lutens Vetiver Oriental. There’s one size for my handbag and one for when I’m travelling. I really like strong smells, so it’s always ginger mixed with, like, bubble gum, or crazy stuff. And I only wear women’s deodorant. Have you smelled guys deodorant?! It’s terrible. I love this one— Dove Powder Fresh. I’ve used it for like, ten years.

I’ve got my favorite Japanese hair wax— Gatsby—that I’ve also worn for years. I like for my hair to be really flat, because it’s naturally really curly. This is the strongest one I’ve found…look, it says 'spikey edge' on the jar. [Laughs] I mostly get my hair cut on photoshoots because I’m working with such great people, like Eugene Souleiman. I also have a really thick eyebrow, and I used to pluck quite a lot…like, full arch. That was three or four years ago…and it was so feminine looking! I looked like one of those Italian 'straight guys'. [Laughs] So I stopped, and now they’re just trimmed a bit and touched up in the middle, but I realized I look better with a full eyebrow. If they’re too 'designed', I look super gay. Even though I’m gay, I don’t want to look too gay, you know? [Laughs] I shave my face once a week with an electric Philips clipper. It’s funny, I don’t do it for work, I do it when I’m going out. I have a phobia of razor shaving. I remember when I was fourteen or fifteen, my dad was actually in the hospital and I was visiting him—he was having stomach problems—and he tried teaching me how to shave. You know, father to son. And I cut myself everywhere, but he couldn’t do anything because he was in the bed. [Laughs] So from that point on I had to pretend, looking in the mirror, that I was shaving someone else when I went to do it, because I was so freaked out. So that was with a real razor for a long time, because my dad wouldn’t let me go anywhere without being clean-shaven, and now I just use the electric ones. I do it head to toe, or head to waist, really. I trim my underarm hair into shape—there’s an art to it, really. [Laughs] Then I shave my chest completely. And then my pubic area I just clip the top above my waistband, but nothing else…and legs are just normal. It’s only in America that people are so crazy about their bodies…going to the gym, being really groomed...everyone’s fanatic. I always just left it; here in Europe no one cares. But now I’m kind of liking it, because you start seeing your muscles. [Laughs]

I bite my nails, which is a huge nightmare, so I always carry my clippers and my little scissor to try and keep them neat. I go get manicures and pedicures quite a lot though, to my Korean girls in SoHo in New York—a place called Think Pink. It’s a little more expensive but it’s worth it. Also I go to acupuncture twice a week, wherever I am. In Tokyo I have one, in New York I have one, here [in Paris] I haven’t found the best one yet. I’m kind of addicted to it. I usually have Chinese herbs with me; my lady in New York makes me capsules because I can’t do tea, it’s too disgusting. I’m always so tired and acupuncture helps, and I also try to run every day wherever I am. I try to be really fit. You feel like…you’re normal. It makes you feel normal—because you have that thirty minutes or an hour to balance yourself. I meditate every day as well—I’m Japanese and that’s a part of my culture. I moved to New York two years ago and my life has become so crazy with jobs—Mugler, Gaga—and I’ve been finding all the attention very hard, mostly because I’m very honest…I just say anything. But I realized you have to be really careful. At the end of the day though, I am very spiritual, and I try to focus on well-being.”

—as told to ITG