For part three of the brief,
i have to find THREE designers
that are influenced by the harajuku sub culture.
1* R A F. S I M O N S
i have to find THREE designers
that are influenced by the harajuku sub culture.
1* R A F. S I M O N S
Raf Simons, Belgian fashion designer who is born January the 12th, 1968. He was studying industrial designer at first, but then he did a few years of self-study, which leads him to become a menswear designer in 1995.
His menswear collections are strongly influenced by the youth culture even though it is in an indirect way; where he often combines strongly cut classic menswear with baggy street wear influenced items. From that point of view, it makes Simons’ style to be described as highly influential and also he is quoted as being one of the most important innovators in contemporary menswear by the international press.
Apart from having innovative menswear designs, he also has an innovative way to present his collections; models running down in a street or walking in a parking area, walking on a bridge or around a photography studio, etc.
Although he already has his own label, ‘RAF’, but he is also the creative director of Jil Sander, owned by the Prada Group as well as designing for Fred Perry.
His menswear collections are strongly influenced by the youth culture even though it is in an indirect way; where he often combines strongly cut classic menswear with baggy street wear influenced items. From that point of view, it makes Simons’ style to be described as highly influential and also he is quoted as being one of the most important innovators in contemporary menswear by the international press.
Apart from having innovative menswear designs, he also has an innovative way to present his collections; models running down in a street or walking in a parking area, walking on a bridge or around a photography studio, etc.
Although he already has his own label, ‘RAF’, but he is also the creative director of Jil Sander, owned by the Prada Group as well as designing for Fred Perry.
I think this designer makes a strong relation with my sub culture, harajuku street fashion because he focus his designs on youth culture, all of his collections are quite wearable, you can literally imagine your brother or cousin to wear some of his design. You can see that most of the colour pallets for his designs are quite diverse, which is just like how the harajuku street fashioners’ clothes; mix ‘n’ match of colours and clothes. And the idea that he held his own show for his collection on a street or a bridge is exactly similar to the street fashioners in Japan who all hang about in Harajuku station and how the photographers from, ‘Fruit magazine’ takes photographs of people who wears unique clothes around Harajuku station.
2* Mercibeaucoup by Eri Utsugi
Eri Utsugi is the founder and lead designer of a Japanese fashion label called, Mercibeaucoup. The label is under Issey Miyake’s A- Net company, it has become higly trendy since its starting, presenting a broad collection of quirky menswear and womenswear clothing options.
The style of this brand alternately described as quirky and cute, just like the harajuku street fashioners. Utsugi’s designs are made up of a wide collection of influences that combine the cuter, fun aspects of some Japanese fashion with a lightly more mature, almost indie perspective.
Many of her designers are taken from construction workers, as she herself admits, due to the comfortable appearance of their clothing. By adding a good deal of additional design and comfort to the look of those clothes, Eri is able to create an outfit that works both in form and function. Fantasy and reality often mix in her designs, too. Just like the idea of mix ‘n’ match from harajuku, Utsugi also mixes a wide array of traditional and technological styles and materials into her designs.
The reason why I’ve chosen this design to back it up with my sub culture is because while the idea of cosplay was once transferred for those in Otaku, designers like Utsugi have reinvented the form in fashion, using the idea of anime and manga inspired designer as centrepieces in shows and new lines. Including everything from massive, cotton candy style wigs to outlandish and overly colourful patterns and massive shoes, her clothing displays the same excess and colourful flamboyance that has made cosplay such a big part of popular Japanese culture. Her purchasable clothing, while not nearly as flamboyant or outrageous maintains the same basic tenets and strives to be multi coloured and playful in many ways as possible to maintain a rich tapestry of concepts and pop culture influences.
3.N e - n e t
An innovative design brand which started during 2005 by a Japanese designer called, Kazuaki Takashima.
Takashima born in 1973, graduated from the Bunka Fashion college in 1994 and joined Issey Miyake Inc in 1996. Then he started his own brand ‘Ne-net’ from affiliated company A-Net Inc in 2005. The name of Ne-net means ‘birth’ in French. The concept behind the brand is that they wanted to design daily clothing which can be shared by couple. Ne-net’s clothing is filled with imagination and happiness has individuality that every couple are like parents and children, men and women can share its sense of value. It is also filled with the up growing potentiality to get lots of fans.
The idea of having a strong connection between menswear and womenswear are very important for harajuku street fashion, too. You can see men wears dress and skirts quite often from ‘Fruit magazine’; the harajuku street fashion magazine. In the fashion industry, menswear are often less interesting than womenswear, that’s why we’ve to choose whether we want to have menswear or womenswear nowadays. Because harajuku street fashion has no restriction, just like ne-net’s clothing, that’s why the garments from them can be so different from what we normally see.
I guess we can only see this type of design coming out fromJapan
An innovative design brand which started during 2005 by a Japanese designer called, Kazuaki Takashima.
Takashima born in 1973, graduated from the Bunka Fashion college in 1994 and joined Issey Miyake Inc in 1996. Then he started his own brand ‘Ne-net’ from affiliated company A-Net Inc in 2005. The name of Ne-net means ‘birth’ in French. The concept behind the brand is that they wanted to design daily clothing which can be shared by couple. Ne-net’s clothing is filled with imagination and happiness has individuality that every couple are like parents and children, men and women can share its sense of value. It is also filled with the up growing potentiality to get lots of fans.
The idea of having a strong connection between menswear and womenswear are very important for harajuku street fashion, too. You can see men wears dress and skirts quite often from ‘Fruit magazine’; the harajuku street fashion magazine. In the fashion industry, menswear are often less interesting than womenswear, that’s why we’ve to choose whether we want to have menswear or womenswear nowadays. Because harajuku street fashion has no restriction, just like ne-net’s clothing, that’s why the garments from them can be so different from what we normally see.
I guess we can only see this type of design coming out from
Kooky fashion came out during Japan Fashion Week on the catwalk. These models display the new collection from designer Kazuaki Takashima from Tokyo's fashion house Ne-net
Models wear creations designed by Kazuaki Takashima of Japanese fashion house Ne-net at a boxing stadium in Tokyo 23rd march 2009
