The graphic designer would help him shape the elements that today have made BAPE a globally recognizable brand: the camouflage, the jumpsuit and the name.
Shortly after opening the store, Nigo called Sk8thing to launch his own clothing brand, A Bathing Ape, or BAPE. The two would become close friends at Bunka Fashion College, to which Nigo attributes nothing relevant other than meeting Takahashi. After a few years working as an editor and stylist at ‘Popeye’ magazine, Nigo teamed up with his friend Jun Takahashi, of Undercover, to open the ‘NOWHERE’ store in Tokyo’s fashion district, Ura-Harajuku. When he started he was almost a passive subject of Streewear culture but it was only a matter of time.
Nigo is one of those regulars in the Japanese underground scene. The brilliant mind behind it? Tomoaki Nagao, aka Nigo, the current creative director at Kenzo. With its iconic camouflage print, shark hoodies, cute BABY MILO and its controversial BAPEsta sneaker, the brand has been winning hearts for three decades. This moment marked the beginning of luxury fashion streetwear.Since its inception in 1993, BAPE has established itself as one of the most recognized streetwear brands in the world and certainly the most from Japan. In due course, Takahashi put on his famous ‘Scab’ show for Paris Fashion Week SS03 and, henceforth, the Western world became obsessed with the brand and the designer. In a full-circle moment, Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo was one of the first purchasers, which quickly led to a friendship between the two designers.Īfter eight years, Kawakubo had told just about everyone in the fashion scene about UNDERCOVER (she really was, and still is his biggest fan) and finally persuaded Takahashi to flaunt his designs outside of Tokyo he decided Paris was the fashion destination he resonated with the most.
#Undercover jun takahashi x bape upgrade
The looks were a huge upgrade to the designer’s previous collections in every way: he took streetwear to high-fashion levels by using unexpected cuts, forward-thinking prints and manifestly luxe fabrics. As one can imagine, the two were already well connected within the Ura-Harajuku area, so it didn’t take long for the store to become one of the city’s most influential fashion hubs.Ī year after setting up Nowhere, Takahashi put on his first womenswear runway show at The Garage in Daikanyama for Tokyo Fashion Week. Named Nowhere, Takahashi launched the store alongside his school friend Nigo (as in Nigo the DJ, record producer and founder of Bape and Human Made). This led to the designer dreaming of his own retail space and subsequently setting up a store, circa 1993. Initially, Takahashi’s collections largely consisted of customized pieces created from vintage finds before he knew it, prominent Japanese stores such as Billy’s in Tokyo began to stock his collections. From inception, UNDERCOVER collections have been informed by rebellion, which explains the label’s ‘We Make Noise, Not Clothes’ slogan and the gothic undertones of the aesthetic. (Productive, we know.) The designer combined his interests and influences with avant-garde notions that were circling in the industry at the time to create a brand-new look.
In 1988, Takahashi graduated from Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, and just two years later, he founded UNDERCOVER. Interestingly enough, Takahashi only started to pay attention to Kawakubo after being dragged by a friend to a Comme des Garçons show. To be specific, he did this by joining punk rock tribute band the Tokyo Sex Pistols as lead vocalist adopting the nickname ‘Jonio’ to pay respects to one of his heroes, Johnny Rotten tattooing his arms up (which, FYI is an act that’s frowned upon in Japan) and, showing dedicated admiration for the work of punk designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo. Born in the historic Japanese city of Kiryū in 1969, the streetwear designer deviated from the traditions of his culture by immersing himself in the global punk movement. At heart, Jun Takahashi – founder of UNDERCOVER – is a punk.
0 kommentar(er)
