Jenny Shimizu contributes to Logo's Legacy Campaign

On her hesitation and eventual agreement to go to New York to model:

When you think more of "we" than just of "me", the fear goes away.

On being a "Japanese, tattooed, lesbian, super-short, mechanic":

You don't need to fit in a mould to be successful. 

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Jenny Shimizu is on Twitter

It's not (yet) a verified Twitter account, but you can be pretty sure it is the real deal.

American Beauty

Date: May 2008
Publication: Audrey Magazine
Author: Paul Nakayama


The Ducati-riding, tattoo-bearing ’90s beauty icon may seem intimidating, but as Paul Nakayama discovers, there’s definitely something about Jenny Shimizu that's hard to resist.

It’s a brisk Sunday afternoon, and I’m sitting nervously at the Casbah Café in Silver Lake, a hip part of Los Angeles, Calif., waiting for Jenny Shimizu to arrive. 


I’m nervous because I was told that Jenny can be intimidating, and the last thing I need is to ask the wrong thing and get my ass trounced by a supermodel. 


Before I could hightail it out of there, I see Jenny just as she steps through the doorway and removes her motorcycle helmet, revealing medium-length hair. I was sort of expecting her signature buzz cut, but she is wearing her motorcycle leathers. I sheepishly raise my hand, and I’m surprised to find her beaming with a smile and waving back.

While she’s getting tea and settling in, I take the opportunity to study her. There’s something about her that strikes me, and it’s not just her elfin features. I decide to reserve describing her for now.

While I remember the famous Calvin Klein ads in the ’90s where Jenny with close-cropped hair is dressed in a white tank top, jeans and tattoos everywhere else, I didn’t know much else about her. She humors my amateur attempts at research, and we talk about her childhood.

Catherine Opie's 'Girlfriends'

All together, “Girlfriends” shows Opie continuing to explore the hidden territories behind constructed facades. Looking at her pictures can be uncomfortable, not because of their confrontational content but because they reveal as much about the beholder as the beheld.

( via )

I'm quite fond of this sweet, portraiture-driven exhibition. Opie's new body of work, portraits of friends and lovers of the 'butch-dyke' persona, is elevated by an array of square-format b&w prints from her archive, never before printed before now. The latter acts almost diary-like, recalling Opie's ties to the S&M community in LA and San Francisco from the early '90s, and some of its subjects (like the riveting Pig Pen) recur in the new series, nearly 15 years later. Among the portraits include a regal k.d. lang against a Canadian wilderness, Jenny Shimizu in leather on a pristine white-sheeted bed and Idexa, tattooed and barechested, crouching on a rock. But I kept going back to Pig Pen, from her almost waifish figure in '94, wearing a play-piercing 'crown of thorns' for a performance in Mexico City, to her tanned, mature figure in '09, a thorn-wrapped heart tattoo emblazoned on her chest. ( via )

“Girlfriends” is on view in New York City until 24 April 2010 at Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street.

More on this here and here.

This is why CK fell in love with Jenny Shimizu

Jenny Shimizu totally owns it. Pure androgyny.

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Jenny Shimizu x Clint Catalyst

via weblo

more on clint catalyst

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Jenny Shimizu Turns Fashion On Its Ear

Date: 21 January 1994
Publication: AsianWeek
Author: Elisa Lee

She sprung up in last year's spring fashion collections in Milan, Paris and New York. She has appeared on the pages of Vogue, Elle, Allure, Mademoiselle and Harper's Bazaar. The former garage mechanic has four tattoos, cropped hair and a navel ring; they say she scared the usually fearless Gianni Versace.

Jenny Shimizu is the hottest Asian American model of the moment and no one knows quite what to make of her.

At 22, Shimizu, who sports a four-inch tattoo of a woman straddling a wrench on her right arm, was discovered at an L.A. nightclub by a casting director who asked her to be in a music video.

Since then, she has walked the runways for designers like Versace, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Anna Sui and Calvin Klein and been photographed by Steven Meisel, Michael Comte, Wayne Maser, Walter Chin and Bruce Weber. She has been spotted around town with Madonna, whom she calls a friend.

Shimizu's popularity has been credited in some part to recent modeling trends favoring "anti-models" like Calvin Klein model Kate Moss, and tattooed, shaved-head model Eve Salvain. "I think it's society and the fashion world getting real," said Shimizu, who at one time swore she would never wear a dress.

She still doesn't wear dresses off the runway, but has come a long way since her Milan runway debut, where she showed up wearing leather biker trousers and a Harley-Davidson T-shirt. "I wanted to quit and jump off the stage," said Shimizu of her first experience.

But Shimizu persevered. "In the beginning I took everything very personally, but you can't do that. You're basically a hanger," said Shimizu whose runway walks are now characterised by an irrepressible personality that her agents forewarn most designers about.

"I have a strong personality and I can't stifle it...sometimes you feed off the energy [of the audience] and get energy from it. I get a kind of attitude. It's only fashion," said Shimizu, who reportedly broke into an embarrassed smile when sent down the runway in a baby- doll dress by one New York designer.

For a woman who grew up wanting to be a cowboy (until she discovered motorcycles), modeling was an unexpected life-change. "I never used to walk around thinking I was pretty. This has done a lot for my confidence," said Shimizu, who went to trade school rather than college.

"The hardest part was feeling comfortable in women's clothes," said Shimizu, who said her agency, Women Model Management in New York, has been very supportive. "The best thing is that I've never been pressured to change my look...Modelling is like an act, a disguise. It's fun for me," said Shimizu.

Fixing motorcycles and cars,said the self-described tomboy, has been a passion since she got her first bike, a `71 Triumph. "It's a physical labour that makes me feel full, and I like getting dirty," said Shimizu. She hopes to save her money and open her own garage someday.

Shimizu finds the biggest difference between the world of the garage and the fashion runway to be the money. "I got to buy my Mom and Dad really nice Christmas presents," said Shimizu, who said modeling is harder work than she thought.

"I think all the models that get paid all the money deserve it. It' s mentally and physically abusing," said Shimizu.

In the world of fashion, Shimizu is the rare Asian American to break the ranks of anonymous pretty faces and become a hot name.

In a multicultural fashion trend, which usually features Eurasian models with vaguely ethnic qualities, Shimizu's clearly defined Asian features, along with her tough image, are helping to change some of the typical standards of American beauty.

"Some women are threatened by her. I've spoken to some girls who are models and they say 'I don't get it,'" said Rosanna (no last name), the L.A. casting agent who discovered her, in an article in New York Newsday.

"I know certain designers who won't use ethnic models," said Shimizu, who nonetheless said that most, especially Calvin Klein have been very open-minded. "Every ethnicity is beautiful. The public is demanding people they can identify with," she said.

"Your roots lie deep. It's like don't fuck with Asians," said Shimizu, who finds herself surprised at being looked up to. "The weird thing is being a role model. I've been thrown into that position and it' s great."

Shimizu is enjoying her new-found popularity for as long as it lasts. "I plan on staying until they kick me out, although I don't plan on being here until 40."