MIZU-IRO is a multifunctional space in the form of a hair salon, with many workshops and projects such as embroidery workshops, art exhibitions and shops, etc. It is the sister branch to BHC hair salon on Amwell Street, Clerkenwell in London. Both of the salons are located on magically quiet streets in the heart of central London.
My first expression of BHC was like finding a hidden gem. Around the corner from where I live, looking through its huge windows from the street, it first looked like an interesting shop selling plants, books, glass jars of something and furniture. They kept an original antique looking sign board saying “Dairy Farmers” but you can spot a BHC sign on their window, too.
The owner Takeshi & Sei are both very friendly, into many things such as art, textiles, music, ceramics, books, architecture... you name it, not just fashion and hair styling, which is why they have many creative followers even though they show zero interest in photo-shoots and posting photos of models with stylish hair on social media and display windows. Their instagrams are filled with nothing of haircut, but their drawings, art photos, book recommendations, embroideries, etc. and you can explore their choice of interesting music through their Spotify account, too.
AMAMAMA: Where are you from and tell us about what you do.
MIZU-IRO (written by Sei) : We are both from Japan. My husband Takeshi is a hair stylist and I look after all the non-hair jobs. We run 2 hair salons together.
A: When did you open your first salon “BHC”? How did you find it?
M: BHC opened in 2013. We were nervous setting up our very first own salon but soon lots of people started to come to us wondering who we are and what we do (we still have the old shop sign on our shop front it says a dairy) and got to know amazingly interesting people. Creating the salon was also fun - filled the space with things we love - objects, books, music etc.
A: What is your philosophy or something different from others about your hair salon?
M: I love our salons because they are more like a community place where likeminded people gather and be influenced by what each of us do. I think seeing things from a different angle always makes things interesting so it is good if you are exposed to interesting ideas regularly, not just hairdressing.
A: When did you open your 2nd salon “Mizu-iro” and how did you find it?
M: We’ve slowly started to open MIZU-IRO from September 2020. Because of the pandemic we haven’t been able to fully use the space yet, but it’s given us a good time to add our own colour to the space like filling a blank canvas.
A: What is different from “BHC”?
M: Our idea for MIZU-IRO was to go beyond hairdressing and explore our other interests in the arts. We also wanted to work with our amazing friends we got to know through BHC. These people are artists, designers, makers, writers, musicians etc, who make the most beautiful works. We wanted to collaborate with them by for example hosting their workshops, selling their works and holding exhibitions.
A: It looks nicely hidden like a members only salon. Is it your intention?
M: We were lucky that our friends Acme Architects have offered this space to us. We saw it and loved the light and the view of the old and new buildings from the window. Also thought it was nicely tucked away from the busy Shoreditch crowd.
A: Tell us about the other projects at Mizu-iro.
M: We hold regular workshops which are all online at the moment but hoping to return to face to face as soon as the restrictions are eased. Darning workshop with Celia Pym and abstract embroidery workshop with Stewart Easton are our regulars. We hope to add more variety of classes in the future.
We also sell works made by the artists we work with.
At the moment we have lovely hand painted necklaces by Lina Peterson @lina_peterson_jewellery and wooden family sculptures by @familyproject.
A: How are you managing child care?
M: Our 4 years old daughter goes to nursery which thankfully reopened recently for half week so that gives us a little more time to do our own things. We bring our 6 months old son to work. We are lucky to have our own business to be able to do this.
A: How do you find the pandemic and lockdown situation?
M: The more you become disconnected from your social life the more it makes the pandemic unreal. If it’s just us being in our own little world it’s very hard to feel the presence of covid so sometimes it’s hard to accept why we can’t do what we want to do at the moment.
I’m feeling the importance of being connected to the outside world both for psychological and creativity reasons. You can only call yourself an ‘‘individual’’ being in a society. You need an audience because this is what motivates you and how you can see yourself valued. Knitting and stitching have been helping me hugely to sooth my lost feelings and keeping me sane! Unluckily or luckily the covid restrictions means we can’t work, so we’re just spending lots of time with our children keeping us very busy!
A: Favourite quote?
M: ''What? You can't knit in the dark? Stuff and nonsense; anybody can. Shut your eyes. Knit one stitch. Open your eyes and look at the stitch; it's all right.'' by Elizabeth Zimmermann
A: Any book?
M: How to be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson
