To test illuminations for another Vuitton project in Tokyo’s Ginza district, Aoki used candles like in old puppet theaters; he placed them behind cutouts and sheets of colored paper. “The light condition I like best is that of the Tokyo morning haze,” says the early-riser, who has no problem getting up every day at four or five. “I stand on the balcony and take a bath in the particles of sunlight, not knowing where the sun is. I experienced the opposite in France, in the city of Nimes. The air was dry. The springtime light was weak but the shades sharp and strong.”

If Aoki thinks as a cinematographer, than it is as one within the most difficult genre 　 comedy. He built the Vuitton flagship store around the theme of  Alice in Wonderland. There, the dressing room walls descend from the ceilings on ropes, so that VIP clients, with store staff attending, do not have to go through the trouble of entering and leaving a booth when trying on clothes. Aoki also smuggled in a design that he was not sure Vuitton’s interior style director, Eric Carlson, would approve of 　 a piece of beige artificial fur that calls to mind the rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s story. (When it was finally discovered on a ceiling, the store had already opened.)

In the end, Aoki’s sense of humor can provide clients with the necessary confidence to build a house. “One day, he stood there in this blue raincoat,” remembers Kaori Senga. “When he opened it, it was shocking red. I laughed and thought to myself, that’s the person I want to build my home!”

ROLAND HAGENBERG   How do you proceed when clients come to you?

JUN AOKI   First I ask them to explain their ideas. Based on that information I produce a model. It serves as a springboard, so we can continue to communicate. Changes come up so I start modifying and the process repeats itself. Models can take on the roles of words.