Kozaburo (Q4959)
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Kozaburo is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Kozaburo |
Kozaburo is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
This season, Kozaburo Akasaka photographed his lookbook images in and around Canal Street on a cool—and it must be said, hot—cast of characters that includes both friends and people he admires. “Until now I’ve been kind of focusing on the visual representation and styling as things that are more out of this world,” he explained during an appointment at a friend’s studio that he had temporarily taken over. That’s the friend wearing the Hex sashiko “denim”-style jacket and matching pleated trousers in the first look. “But I see my friends wearing the clothes, so I kind of wanted to capture this moment in New York.”As it turns out, grounding his clothes in real life served to elevate their desirability—in the designer’s meticulous creative process it can sometimes get lost that he makes clothes to be lived-in, not to be saved for precious special occasions. Take the aforementioned honeycomb Sashiko group, which is available in four different colors, each achieved through a different natural hand-dyeing process in his native Japan. Whipping out an iPad full of videos of the dyeing in-progress, he explained the painstaking steps through which the colors are achieved. “It’s funny because I’m from Japan, but as I go out of the country I learn more about our history—I didn’t know that we had a rich history in botanical dyeing colors. It was also part of kimono culture, which is in decline; the amount of craftsmen now is 3% of what it used to be in its heyday.”It does not make for inexpensive clothing, that’s for sure, but there’s a clear one-to-one relationship between its process and the final product. Supporting a centuries-old tradition with silhouettes that are timeless but never boring is also a kind of sustainability approach. “Some people say this material is quite heavy for spring, but for me it’s more about its longevity,” he added. Elsewhere there were lightweight cottons, a similarly lightweight cardigan knitted to resemble snake scales, and, of course, Kozaburo’s signature denim separates. A Western shirt with a leather trim was an absolute highlight.
16 July 2024
For fall, Kozaburo Akasaka was continuing the narrative he began with his spring collection, which was inspired by the characters that inhabit his imaginary utopia. This season, which he titled “Night Fall,” was inspired by a trip to Texas, his visit to the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and the Stephen King novel Dark Tower. All those things were not directly translated into the collection, rather they added up to a certain kind of dark mood—and a great souvenir jacket with Americana motifs, including a cactus and the Statue of Liberty.Kozaburo has a clear sense of his vision, meaning fall was another collection full of very cool, instantly desirable pieces—especially jackets. Like a kimono-type jacket with an extended shoulder and curved sleeves made from a black Japanese sashiko fabric with a special honeycomb weave specially developed by the designer. The bomber made from poly shearling and then covered in sheer nylon with an elasticized waist was without a doubt one of the highlights of the collection. Black and blue denim were paired together in a sporty pullover anorak silhouette, Western-inspired button down shirts, and two-tone jeans with Kozaburo’s signature slit on the front. He used a 100% wool bulbous knit in the honeycomb shape for a little sweater and matching cardigan in a shade of cement. An emerald green velvet suit was inspired by one of the designer’s uniquely American obsessions. “I’m really into this American folk art, velvet paintings,” he explained. “Velvet suits, for me, are also quite an American thing.” A blue washed denim jacket, elongated shirt, and jeans were hand-dyed in his studio with logwood using a traditional indigenous technique from South America. “I really like the unevenness of the hand dyeing,” he added. “It reminds me of a Rothko.”
17 February 2024
The one thing you need to know about Kozaburo Akasaka’s spring show is that everyone looked absolutely cool. The designer made his New York runway debut in a warehouse space in Brooklyn, with two drummers flanking the runway as models walked this way and that around little swirly piles of rocks that were sometimes covered in surplus denim or ties, like a Zen garden for modern anxiety. A few elements tied the show together, chief among them a preponderance of denim, a high-waist with a double waistband (belted on the second row of belt loops), and a pair of weird small glasses with blinders that were very chic. Taking in the whole presentation was akin to spending 15 minutes quietly people-watching in a new neighborhood: You’re trying to figure out who’s who by the clothes they’re wearing. It was exactly what Akasaka intended.“My starting point is the characters that live in the Land of Setting Sun, which is the imaginary utopia I created through my branding,” Akasaka said after the show. Every model had their own essence and energy; they were characters—but not archetypes—and all wore expertly cut clothes. See a model in a red denim Canadian tuxedo with an oversized denim trucker jacket and royal blue cowboy boots; see another in a softly draped short sleeve button down shirt tucked into low-slung denim trousers with a pattern that resembled a snake’s path in the sand, cut extra long to completely obscure the feet underneath, who was also carrying an old-school briefcase in one hand. Also see the model in a lightweight tweed wool suit cut with an extra long jacket and pleated pants, and a semisheer button-down with a delicately cut picot-edge placket with snaps.On closer inspection, patterns started to emerge. Almost every look had somethingsssshapelyabout it; the clothes had curved edges, denim was embellished with a matching piping that snaked around the legs, and patterns included an S-shaped motif or movement. Before getting into fashion, Akasaka studied philosophy and religious studies and began looking at the representation of snakes across various different cultures. “Through my research I found that in Africa, China, and Japan, there’s always this representation of the snake motif as life, power, or good luck; the snake as representative of nature.
” A bold yellow-and-maroon graphic print jacket seemed to have its roots in the water spirit Mami Wata, while a button-down shirt and matching trousers in a warm silver were embossed to achieve a crinkle texture that also suggested the slithering of a snake on the ground.
13 September 2023
Kozaburo Akasaka’s collections often have a rich spiritual backstory that merges Japanese and American cultures. This season, the saga takes on a new dimension; the collection was shot half in Tokyo and half in New York, with the pictures superimposed into an imagined intergalactic landscape. The space-desert setting becomes a new third place in Kozaburo lore: It’s neither East nor West, earthly nor heavenly... Maybe it’s the world we are re-emerging into post-COVID? Maybe it’s just a better, groovier place in general; the trippy landscape also features as a print on roomy poly separates.This Friday, Akasaka will create his own groovy, happier place with a rave in Brooklyn. Over video chat, he explains he hopes it rages ’til the sun rises. The collection he’s created for spring 2022 has a raver’s urgency: surefooted, essential silhouettes with a pragmatic bent. His sub-label Wave of Sand introduces new boxy tees with a ripple graphic and expands upon its vocabulary of functional trousers, wide in the thigh and tight in the waist. Phantom Ranch Market, Akasaka’s upcycling endeavor, transforms old Schott leather jackets into new hybridized pieces, two jackets cut diagonally from shoulder to hem or in a wave pattern across the yoke and stapled together. A collaboration with Wrangler, the original cowboy jean, brings Akasaka’s world to a new demographic without losing any of the designer’s edge. Jeans are high-rise with slice-top pockets and a pintuck along the back to create a gentle, sensual flare.The most exciting developments this season, though, are in the suiting. Formalwear was never a Kozaburo signature, but his oversize blazer with hanging strings, worn with curved trousers, makes a compelling case for post-pandemic tailoring. The jacket had an interior strap to be styled either loose or cinched. Coordinating pants have exterior pockets that hang around the legs, sort of like Japanese armor. Of all the suits we’ve seen this season so far, Akasaka’s do the best at mixing reality and ingenuity. Ready for a brave new world, indeed.
18 September 2021
If the fall 2021 season and its many fashion films have proven anything, it’s that you can’t fake emotional depth (see: models aimlessly dancing). Most of the clothing I have observed falls into two buckets: clothing to be sold and clothing to be felt. The divide seems greater than ever, but Kozaburo Akasaka is the rare designer to bridge both worlds, which his new collection does masterfully.Called Monkwear, the concise range is visually appealing and wearable, featuring padded coats with exterior seams and drop-shoulder raglan tees. Akasaka’s two new trousers, a keikogi-inspired Gigi pant and motocross-meets-REI Mobi pant, are priced just around $200 each and are worn with laser-etched kimono jackets and padded custom knits. On the surface it’s all very want-able and very warm.Underneath, there is a spiritual richness. “It’s not only product,” Akasaka said over Zoom. “There is philosophy attached to the object—more value.” The value has to do with his inspiration, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, Kukai. The monk lived in the Heian period, traveling to China to study and setting up a sanctuary at Mount Koyo, outside Kyoto. Akasaka’s padded jackets are actually drawn from qipaos, with an extra pocket at the back where the designer imagines a monk could carry his texts. The laser-etched mountain on the kimono jacket is a nod to Koya itself, with the sun of enlightenment rising above it. Those short-sleeve tees have dropped raglan sleeves so that from behind the back panel vaguely resembles Mount Fuji, another omnipresent symbol of Akasaka’s native Japan.Nearly every detail has a similar backstory; a small logo is a fusion of two of the letters in Kozaburo’s name (三+郎), a wonky pearl on a prayer-bead necklace represents beauty in imperfection, and the lava stones on the same necklace nod to Akasaka’s adopted home in America.After his show at Tokyo Fashion Week and a week of sales appointments in Tokyo, Akasaka will do another week of sales meetings in Kyoto—only the clientele will be different. “Monks only,” he said, smiling. His hope is that a new generation of Buddhists will relate to the calmness, joy, and emotion in his clothing. If it’s good enough for the monks, well, then it must be good enough for us mere shoppers too.
22 March 2021
Imagining a better future is already becoming a motif of the mostly digital, totally pandemic-proofed spring 2021 season. But for Kozaburo Akasaka, philosophizing on fashion’s potential for change is nothing new. The designer half-jokingly categorized his brand as “Orwellian”—always challenging the status quo. He builds seasonal themes as articulated as the flares of his trousers: sharp, cutting, impossible to miss.For spring 2021, he considered the concept of “en-yu,” an idea he describes as a respect for the individual that leads to a universal harmony. We all exist separately, together—an idea all too poignant for these times. He also found inspiration in the synthetic materials and protection of outer space alongside the techno futurism of ’90s pop culture. The shift from the romantic and brooding cowboys and deserts of his early work to the manufactured, sterile geodome that acts as the background for his spring 2021 collection is stark; his change in materials is maybe starker.The Kozaburo signatures remain, though, now in Tyvek and polyester instead of cotton or denim. Crinkle leisurewear offers an alternative to the sweatpants lifestyle: relaxed, packable (should you ever find a place to go), and still rigorously tailored, mimicking the high waist of his signature jeans and boxy fits of his preferred jackets. There is also a wavy-print pajama set—“galaxy camo,” per the release—that comes with interchangeable tops: classic button-up, camp shirt, and band collar. Akasaka’s denim look is laser-etched with a vortex design.This casualwear is contrasted with new experiments in tailoring and silhouette. A midnight blue suit is Akasaka’s take on a double-breasted style, with high-waist, curved trousers and a single-button jacket that crosses dramatically on the front. It’s styled with a black scarf made in traditional shibori—a top version wasn’t ready for the look book, but is a thematic crossover from the popcorn shirts of ’90s music videos and Japanese craftsmanship.The collection look book ties together Akasaka’s recurring motifs—music, protection, work—in a biodome of protection. There is also a 3D rendering of his studio in Brooklyn that users can navigate to learn more about specific items, be they blankets from seasons past or limited-edition tees from spring 2021. He chose to make this 3D universe rather than a video to find a way to better connect with his customers.
“I want to live, I want to look for a better future, and I want the brand to participate in that,” he says. This season of reflection has positioned him well to redefine fashion’s new look.
15 September 2020
The silhouette of a Kozaburo guy is so strong he needs only be backlit to confirm that the menacing hunch of his shoulders and the electrifying curve of his flares have been designed by Kozaburo Akasaka. Akasaka’s fall 2020 look book was shot exactly thus, to emphasize the silhouette he has built his label around. It was a strong visual choice, but reader beware: To reduce the seduction of Akasaka’s work to his glamorous shapes would be a mistake, even if his high-rise, boot-cut jeans are mind-bogglingly excellent—and now with 1% stretch. First and foremost Akasaka is a craftsman and innovator, and fall 2020 saw him experiment in exciting new ways.He was inspired, he said, by the idea of a black hole, a mass circling toward itself, spiraling and caving inward and inward. This was translated literally as a logo graphic of concentric circles on a tie-dye tee. (The coppery color of the tie-dye was inspired by Akasaka’s jewelry collection of patinaed necklaces and charms.) Spiritually, the idea of self-reflection came through in souvenir jackets with custom messages written by a monk friend in Kyoto. One, scrawled in script down the sleeve of a track jacket, can be translated as, “The treasure is already in your hands.”As he worked his way through the rails holding up his collection—situated in the back of an arty Lower East Side smoke shop hosting a pop-up of his wares—Akasaka paused at two new coat concepts. Black melton wool was stapled together along seams, to reduce waste and add a brutalist feel to outerwear. A model shrugged his way into the coat. It was sliced up the back seam, the cut only elucidating the overall grooviness of his full Kozaburo look. As a designer, Akasaka’s got it. The treasure is already in his hands.
6 February 2020
Exactly two years have passed since Kozaburo Akasaka won the LVMH Special Prize on the strength of his first two collections. Looking back over that time period, the Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based designer grew contemplative, considering the first chapter in his brand’s story to have closed. “The last two years I’ve pushed and grown outward,” he said on an appointment in his studio, located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. “This collection, the feeling is more going inward. It’s the feeling of density—a storm, or rocks.”The last reference point guided Akasaka to the landscape art and architecture he has always loved. There exists a kinship between his emotive designs and the spiritual connections embedded in the large-scale works of Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, and Harvey Fite, whose Opus 40 environmental sculpture park in the Hudson Valley provided the backdrop for Spring 2020. Akasaka swept himself into a fantasy: “This is my wardrobe, if I was a landscape artist.” (As if to playfully underscore that point, he also served as the lookbook’s model.)He introduced a touch of sportswear—a few well-cut tracksuits, nylon shorts, and anoraks—but a land artist’s sensitivity toward the environment led him to choose part-recycled synthetics, as well as a blend of organic cotton and recycled polyester for his T-shirts. Another smart bit of upcycling came through in his use of Kaya, a homespun hemp fabric historically used in Japan for mosquito nets. He used four layers of the stuff to create a thick, cottony cream gauze collared shirt that went well with summer-friendly versions of his signature suits, which came in featherweight linens, rodeo twill, and waffle-knit denim. Key graphics included an imaginary map titled “Land of Setting Sun” and the face of anUmibozu, or sea-bound spirit, embroidered on the back of a silk souvenir jacket as if to say, with excitement, uncharted waters lie ahead in Akasaka’s brave new world.
11 July 2019
Kozaburo Akasaka has an independent streak, which is embedded in his namesake label’s DNA. It’s why he chose not to present this season, despite the success of September’s Chilean rock show, and why he found himself revisiting two lifelong inspirations: Bruce Lee and Michael Jackson. “It’s an homage to my heroes,” he said during an appointment at his Bed-Stuy studio. Akasaka pointed to the collection’s focal piece, a green silksukajanwith Ancient Greek sock and buskin masks subtly twisted to recall each icon’s face. “They had their own vision and took it through their artwork and also their life. That encourages me,” he said.This handsome shade of blueish green flitted throughout the lineup and was a new hue for Akasaka, picked for its resemblance to the natural tone of oxidized copper on his signature shirt closures. It looked great on a collarless wool kimono jacket and flannel-ed wool shirt, bringing a new texture and tone to the story. Akasaka’s favorite addition was a stretchy knit stocking cap, whose extra-long tail could be wound around the neck like a little bandana. Great fun with crowd-pleasing potential.Salable items included those hats and a cool tracksuit with emotive calligraphic swirls running down their stripes. Akasaka also partnered this season with Kurabo, a Japanese manufacturer that is able to take the sustainability practices at core of his work and evolve them. Specifically, Kurabo takes the scraps of denim that are cut away in production and respins them into cotton fibers to be used again. Until now, Akasaka had done so by hand, creating his stunningsakioriwoven jeans as a conceptual project. Kurabo’s result: very fine black denim bootcut pants and many saved hours, which means they can be brought to scale.“Mottainaiis a Japanese mentality to convey a sense of respect over wasted material and labor,” read the tag. Here is a designer who puts sustainability into quiet practice, rather than wave it about blindly to promote his brand. Perhaps a little too quietly, in fact. Design like his deserves to be shouted about.
6 February 2019
In an ordinary Brooklyn brownstone, removed from the noise of New York’s men’s shows, Kozaburo Akasaka continues to quietly create the most compelling menswear in the city, rooted in his soulful exploration of “individual globalism.” This season, it took on an element of spiritualism, “though this I feel is a bit corny to say,” Akasaka said somewhat sheepishly. He was struck by the cultural and political divisions afflicting society today. “My wish is for fashion to transcend these boundaries,” he said. Called “Transcend,” the collection was photographed in Akasaka’s own backyard, where a small bamboo grove thrives. Just before dusk, an otherworldly light hits the leaves.Akasaka considers this his first real Spring collection, as last year’s offering retained a great deal of heavy tailoring for the LVMH Prize jury’s consideration. There were high-waisted suit pants and coats made with burlap and breathable linen, including a new “sack jacket” cut from a single panel folded and stitched on the inside. “I want my clothes to be worn and stay with you a long time, so if your size changes,” he said, tugging gently at the fabric, “you can cut the stitch to make it bigger.” A matching pant featured hand-patinated copper buttons with fabric loops at the waist to adjust the fit; two matching clasps on each ankle allow one to cinch the legs too, if desired. Broken velour sweatsuits were a nice casual addition: Akasaka made pants, mock-neck tank tops, and crewnecks with gaping holes in the armpits as “ventilation for the arms,” he said, laughing. Boxy totes with circular bamboo handles were also highlights. One was woven from the same recycled plastic used in the Ikea Frakta; Akasaka also reworked those fibers into a crunchy top coat.The spiritualism came through in the abstract brush stroke print, hand-painted by his friend, a Buddhist monk in Kyoto, and printed on a long shirtdress and beautiful Sachiko embroidered overcoat. “It’s not letters or meaning, it’s more about the feeling,” he said. The graphic T-shirt was inspired by the mark of a Japanese dojo, but combined the Chinese yin and yang symbol and the Native American medicine wheel. As before, this thoughtful blending of cultures was built into each garment. Madras check (“very preppy American clothing”) was overdyed to connect it to East Asian textiles, and a waffle knit “Miami beach” shirt was dipped in Japanese indigo.
A gray collared top had a length of rough-edged chambray draped up and over each shoulder, to mimic the way Japanese workers tie back their kimono sleeves; the chambray was inlaid with white threads, so that with time, its pale color will peek through.To transcend barriers is a tall order, but Akasaka’s designs are powerful in the emotion they convey. One could see the handwork on the back of an embroideredsukajansouvenir jacket—a pearly dragon, spitting pink and blue flames, marked “Kozaburo, With Love.” That love came through in every stitch.
18 July 2018
Kozaburo Akasaka has an incredible gift for storytelling. The amount of care and craft that goes into his work is staggering; one can sense the emotion in each hand stitch. This unique sensitivity has drawn much attention since he graduated from Central Saint Martins and then Parsons in 2016. Dover Street Market snapped up his graduate collection, he made the LVMH Prize shortlist with Fall 2017, and then earned the competition’s Special Prize with Spring 2018. All this was done by a single man, who produced all of his initial pieces by hand—and the hand comes through clearly.Akasaka works out of a brownstone in Bushwick. On the morning of our appointment, he is standing coolly on the front steps, the best advertisement for his own designs: curved leather flares over block-heeled boots, a black velvet top, and copper ball chain that has gone pale green from rust. Inside, he steeps a pot of green tea and explains his decision not to hold a presentation this season, focusing instead on New York and Paris buyer appointments and slowly building his team. “It’s still a small structure, I’m doing everything by myself, so I don’t want to make it too crazy,” he said, offering a matcha tea biscuit shaped like a leaf.The idea of “individual globalism” informs Akasaka’s work and his heartfelt desire to exchange and blend cultures. This season began for him on a one-week road trip to El Paso, Texas, where a friend sent him in search of the best cowboy boots. “I always liked them,” he said. “I think there is a certain unique authenticity in U.S. cowboy boots, jeans, [and] Western shirts that I want to keep examining.” He then went on to New Mexico and was further inspired by the unexpected meeting of his childhood and adopted homes. “It was very dry desert, very beautiful, but at the same time, the first atomic bomb was created there, so there’s a little bit of chemical cling,” he said. Though it began as a vacation, it turned into his creative ode to the American West as seen through his eyes.It is a timely visual reference thanks to Raf Simons at Calvin Klein, but Akasaka made it entirely his own by infusing his Japanese sensibility. The collection is called Ghost Ranch, after Georgia O’Keeffe’s New Mexico retreat. “But I wanted to get that it’s not totally classic American Western, but combining the Japanese, Asian motifs to create somewhere that’s nowhere,” he said. “Almost an outer space feeling.
” There was a moleskin jacket with the knotted button closures of achangshan, and sturdy denim jackets actually made fromsashiko, the fabric traditionally used to make judogis. A silver belt buckle, on closer examination, features the gaping maw of anoni, or demon, and a beautiful black blanket draped over the shoulder was a collaboration with indigenous weavers in Chimayo, whose workshop Akasaka visited on his travels.Beyond beautiful clothes, Akasaka is uniquely committed to sustainability. In Hokkaido, the northern region of Japan, overpopulation of deer has lead locals to hunt. Akasaka repurposed those skins as statement vests and trim jackets. His signature recycled jeans are made from the scraps of denim discarded by vintage stores when they slice the legs to create cut-off shorts; he shreds them down into new fibers, then hand weaves them into an entirely new fabric that looks like a remarkable nubby denim tweed. “I wanted to show sustainability in my own individual way,” he said, and the difference is striking.One could go on and on explaining the thoughtful references and exquisite techniques in Akasaka’s collection, but this editor will finish with this: his nod to the Navajo concho belt, reimagined with silver buckles of Japanese calligraphic script. The characters were chosen and drawn by a childhood friend who had become a Buddhist monk at a temple in Kyoto. “It says ‘tou-u hou-u,’ which means ‘rain falls on everything,’ happiness or sadness will fall on everybody—nobody is only happy or only sad,” he said. It served as a reminder that fashion has the power to move so much more.
12 February 2018