Interview: FEMM talks latex and Olympics at Animé LA 2020

Continuing on from the review of Animé LA, we had a chance to talk to the super fashionable mannequin duo FEMM (Far East Mention Mannequins) formed of LuLa and RiRi who continuously cruise across the globe in style. Fans of electronic dance-pop who like Charisma.com, CAPSULE, and Teddyloid might want to give them a try. If you’ve not yet listened to them, their discography is streamable on Spotify. Whilst you have their sassy beats pumping in the background, we have W-Trouble (WT) who will be interpreting for LuLa and Honey-B (H-B) and will be channeling the voice for RiRi. Let’s get to it!

Happy new year. How is everyone on Team FEMM doing? Do you all have any new year wishes or resolutions for 2020?

WT: Happy new year! We would love to meet more of our agents this year! And we want more people to join the squad.

H-B: This year we wanna travel as much as possible! RiRi and LuLa love to greet their agents all over the world.

Yes of course! We’ve seen you’re very actively performing around the world lately, which was your most fond tour or show memory of 2019?

WT: We went to Chicago in December. There was an agent who said he waited to see FEMM for 5 years, and it was a memorable moment. LuLa was so happy to hear that. In Japan, FEMM enjoyed performing with their FAMM’IN crew at an event in Yokohama.

Wow, five years is a really long time to wait.

H-B: Visiting Shanghai for the first time was pretty awesome too! Everyone was so nice and RiRi would want to visit again someday.

We’re sure the fans would like you to visit again soon. We also noticed a lot of excitement on Twitter for THE PERFORMER’S event. For our overseas readers, could you tell us more about this show?

H-B: It was a cool event where various types of performers did their thing. FEMM appeared as a guest performer and was able to have fun with their agents!

FEMM’s most recent release was a digital single Shibuya Ex Horologium that came out in August 2019. Can you tell us more about this track?

WT: First of all FEMM had their original show DOLLHOUSE in 2018, and we got guests to tweet how they felt about the show. Inspired from those tweets, AI bot “Rinna” wrote lyrics that became this song Shibuya Ex Horologium. The words are in Japanese, but it’s LuLa’s favorite and I’m sure agents oversea will love it too!

Watch this video on YouTube

That’s really high tech. Your vocals last appeared on the DOLLHOUSE EP that came out in 2018 which was a while ago. Is there something in the works for FEMM fans to hear LuLa’s and RiRi’s voice?

H-B: New music coming for sure! We are so excited and cannot wait to deliver it!

WT: 2020 will be a great year for FEMM team and agents! Hang in there!

Aside from music, are there any exciting projects you can tell us about?

H-B: Actually we are working on cool projects that are coming. There’s gonna be Tokyo Olympics in the summer, so the Japanese theme would probably be the important this year.

WT: We will keep on posting on FEMM’s Instagram and Twitter, so keep up on there!

Yeah of course! We already follow your Instagram and the visuals are always so impressive from the clothing, makeup, to the hairstyles. What message is FEMM wanting to communicate?

WT: Thank you for following us! Since FEMM are mannequins, they cannot speak like a human, but they can express themselves with what they are wearing. But actually, we think it can be the same as humans too. We tend to believe what we see at first sight, so it’s important to speak with your fashion to express “who you are”.

We spotted you both at trendy fashion parties from Alexander Wang as well as Zadig & Voltaire. As fashionistas, can you please share with us your thoughts on the fashion trend for 2020 in Japan?

WT: For FEMM, latex is very important. But for everyday wear, it’s kinda difficult to wear. [Laughs] This is the year for Tokyo Olympics, so we would want to express the beauty of the traditional Japanese Kimono.

Yeah, we’ve noticed you’ve started wearing latex kimonos again!

H-B: Like WT says, since it’s the year of the Olympics. Even in fashion, it would be nice to have a traditional Japanese touch. Mixing it with modern would be interesting too.

That makes a lot of sense, but what’s your most favorite outfit?

H-B: RiRi loves the army look. She is a combat mannequin and the tough look suites her.

WT: LuLa’s a housekeeping mannequin, so the nurse look is kinda her thing.

You also attended the Sneakers n Stuff store opening. Does RiRi or LuLa have a favorite sneaker model?

WT: It was a really cool store! LuLa especially loves NIKE’s CORTEZ and Converse All-Star.

H-B: RiRi likes Adidas “Superstar.” She likes the name too. [laughs]

Do you have any simple fashion tips for regular people like us to dress well like FEMM?

WT: To be confident, just like FEMM! All you need to add is some heals and lipstick and you are ready to go!

H-B: FEMM enjoy fashion! They love to wear lots of colors! Wearing your favorite item is the most important.

We love the video of them featured in BMW’s auto-driving car! If Team FEMM can come up with new technology for the world, what would you like to invent?

WT: Thank you for watching the videos! As agents, our goal is to create a borderless environment between mannequins and humans.

H-B: There are lots of AI robots these days, but FEMM are not robots. They are mannequins with emotions just like humans. They have great hearts and we wish to have people understand that. If technology can help that process, it would be interesting.

That’s a wonderful idea, and to end, could you please leave our readers with a message?

WT: Thank you, agents and readers, for reading this interview. 2020 is gonna be a really special year for FEMM!

So keep your eyes on them!

H-B: We are excited to meet more and more agents this year! Hope to see you soon!

We’d like to thank Animé LA and organizers involved who made this interview possible.