Akari Endo-Gaut is a stylist, designer, and curator who has spent her career refusing to pick one lane. She’s dressed Alex Katz, designed the room at the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Al Coro, and written for Sotheby’s Magazine. The thread through all of it is a conviction that an object carries time—and the older it is, the more honestly it speaks. One detail says everything: a Cartier ring from her mother that she has never once taken off—not at the beach, not on a shoot, not anywhere. It feels fitting, then, that Akari is seated on one of John Chamberlain’s iconic foam couches, the same couch host Alexandra Fairweather grew up on. Her crib was a miniature of it, in the kitchen of Chamberlain’s studio.
Follow our host: https://www.instagram.com/alexandrafairweather/
Follow our guest: https://www.instagram.com/akariendogaut/?hl=en
Stay up-to-date with the John Chamberlain Estate:
Tune in to episodes of ON THE COUCH via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, YouTube, or wherever you prefer to stream.
---------------
Timestamps:
0:00 – Introduction
0:27 – Meet Stylist & Designer Akari Endo-Gault
1:32 – Growing Up in Japan: Kimono, Ceramics & Tradition
4:41 – Inside Her Father's Architecture Studio
5:47 – Le Corbusier & Studying French Literature in Tokyo
8:02 – Moving to Paris: First Impressions
10:31 – Why Vintage & Antique Objects Matter
11:20 – Studying at École des Beaux-Arts in Paris
12:49 – Producing Fashion Shows for Dior & Michael Kors
14:06 – How She Became a Fashion Stylist
15:21 – Styling Painter Alex Katz
17:53 – The Meaning Behind Her Mother's Ring
20:11 – From Fashion Styling to Restaurant Interior Design
24:25 – Black Mountain College & Josef Albers Research
30:28 – Career Advice for Creatives & Slowing Down