Olympia Le-Tan – Teacher’s Pet from Ricky Saiz on Vimeo.
Fashion people and Chinatown grandmas have many things in common, but perhaps our strongest commonality is our shared karaoke obsession. If you’re still in mourning of beloved Bayard St. hangout Winnie’s, it’s time to dry those eyes and get back to belting your heart out. You can start by singing along to Olympia Le Tan’s newest karaoke-themed fashion film directed by Ricky Saiz, the co-head of Creative at Supreme and brains behind the Yonce video.
Teacher’s Pet sees Kiko Mizuhara channel strong schoolgirl vibes, step inside Tokyo’s karaoke underground, and perform Makkana Taiyou. But how did Olympia’s sequin situation end up in Japan? “Ricky is an old friend. We were going to Japan at the same time, so I asked him if he would do a little video for me,” Olympia—herself a well known karaoke star who jumps at the chance to perform Kate Bush’s classic Wuthering Heights—told us. “It was all very spontaneous and last minute. I contacted Kiko, she said yes, and three days later we shot the video.”
“I initially wanted to make a Super 8 film of Kiko dressed up in the bunny outfit Olympia made—a slightly fetishized and augmented home movie around Tokyo of normal situations but in this bunny lingerie,” Ricky added. Time didn’t allow for the Gummo-esque escapades, so when Olympia proposed a karaoke schoolgirl shoot, he was down. “Kiko is obviously so beautiful and had a great voice,” he said of the Tokyo-based model and actress. “We had fun.”
Check out some behind the scenes shots from the set of Teacher’s Pet:
“Accessories (OLT and local)”
“Our make-up artist Katsuya Kamo in his ‘office,’ a tiny karaoke room”
“Kiko and her little lamb”
“Ricky and Kiko”
“We wrote the lyrics to Makkana Taiyou all over the walls as Kiko had her back to the karaoke screen”
Credits
Text Emily Manning
Images courtesy Olympia Le Tan