The Japanese fashion brand “Takeo Kikuchi” celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2024. Takeo Kikuchi, the designer of Takeo Kikuchi, is a legendary figure in the Japanese fashion world who has left behind numerous anecdotes. In this article, we will write about the anecdotes of Takeo Kikuchi, a living legend, and the appeal of Takeo Kikuchi.
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What is Takeo Kikuchi?
Takeo Kikuchi is a Japanese men’s fashion brand that was launched in 1984 by designer Takeo Kikuchi, and focuses on traditional English-style items. The brand’s creed is to create realistic clothes that blend into everyday life, and in designing its clothes, Kikuchi is always concerned with whether or not the atmosphere he feels matches the real (reality) in the clothes.
The following is an in-depth look at how Takeo Kikuchi has evolved to the present day, from his beginnings as a fashion designer to the anecdotes he has left behind as a designer.
Anecdotes of Takeo Kikuchi 1Kikuchi's talent as a designer so much that even before his debut, he was covered extensively in newspapers
Takeo Kikuchi, who loved drawing pictures since he was a child, entered the art department of Bunka Institute, a special training school, to study painting, but decided not to pursue it because “it is difficult to make a living in the art field. However, he decided not to become a painter because “it is difficult to make a living as a painter. What triggered him to pursue a career in fashion was a project to sell the works of students and young designers at the Nihonbashi Takashimaya Department Store at the time. He applied for a job as a “trial run,” and his design was immediately accepted and sold very well, which solidified Kikuchi’s desire to “make a living in the fashion industry. After graduating from Bunka Gakuin, he entered Hara Nobuko Design Academy (now Aoyama Fashion College), where he began his career in fashion in earnest. Even before making his debut as a designer, Kikuchi’s work was covered by the Japan Times and graced the pages of newspapers. After graduation, Kikuchi worked at several couturiers (tailors) and later established Bigi Co., Ltd. with his classmates, the parent company of the legendary Men’s Bigi brand.
By the way, I used the word “work” in the Nihonbashi Takashimaya episode above. While there are designers who consider their clothes as works of art, Mr. Kikuchi has never thought of his clothes as works of art. What he wants to make are clothes that can be worn in everyday life. “You can tell at a glance that (Issei Miyake’s) clothes are Issei’s, but I think it is hard to tell with my clothes. My clothes are a reflection of my life, or the shape of my life,” he says.
Anecdotes of Takeo Kikuchi 2Creator of the legendary Men's Bigi brand that sparked the DC boom
For about 10 years after his debut as a designer, Kikuchi worked mainly in couturiers and his own atelier, making custom-made clothes. However, he had always held in his heart “the desire to design freely for many people of the same generation as himself,” and his desire to create real clothes led him to switch to the ready-to-wear business. In 1970, he established Bigi Co., Ltd. with his classmate and wife at the time, Kaie Inaba, and another classmate, Yuji Ohkusu, to handle ladies’ wear. Kikuchi was in charge of design and production, and worked on stage costumes for the Shiki Theater Company. For Mr. Kikuchi, the founding of Bigi was a powerful experience that he still vividly recalls, saying that it was “one of the biggest events that changed the rest of my life. He later launched a men’s line, which became an explosive boom in the field of men’s fashion when he was in charge of costumes for the legendary drama ‘ The Wounded Angel,’ starring Kenichi Hagiwara. Also, the great Bruce Lee wore a Bigi suit in ‘ Burning Dragon’ in 1973. The men’s line was then spun off by Kikuchi in 1975, which marked the beginning of the legendary ” Men’s Bigi ” brand.
Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, and other DC brands became socially popular in Japan in the 1980s, but it was Men’s Bigi that pioneered and sparked this trend. The name “Takeo Kikuchi” became well known to the public, and the brand continued to grow with feverish enthusiasm, driven by the huge success of ”The Wounded Angel (1974-75),” for which he had been providing costumes since his days at Menbigi.
Anecdotes of Takeo Kikuchi 3The first men's brand by a Japanese to enter Paris
As sales of Men’s Bigi were steadily increasing in Japan, Mr. Kikuchi decided to expand overseas and moved his base to Paris just two years after the brand was launched. He presented his collection in Paris and became the first Japanese to open a men’s store in Paris. Originally, the center of men’s fashion was Milan, and even at that time, Giorgio Armani was the only reference, according to Mr. Kikuchi. There were two reasons why he dared to choose Paris. One is that he was intrigued by the unique sensibility of France, which skillfully incorporates different cultures and somehow dyes them in a French way. The other reason was that the sense of “mode” created by designers from all over the world could only be found in Paris. The fact that cutting-edge mode fashion was concentrated in Paris, which had been the leader in women’s fashion since that time, appealed to him, and he established Men’s Bigyorop in Paris. Incidentally, when he held his second show in Paris, his partner was Lucien Perafine.
Everything seemed to be going well, but when Kikuchi left, the Japanese side of the business deteriorated. Forced to make a decision to abandon one or the other, Mr. Kikuchi chose to withdraw from Paris and return to Japan in 1979. The debt was said to be around 100 million yen, but as soon as Mr. Kikuchi returned to Tokyo, the show received an immediate response and he succeeded in rebuilding the company. At that time, he realized how difficult it was to manage both business and design by himself, and decided to leave the management side to his old friend Bigi and concentrate on designing.
[He decided to concentrate on designing, leaving the management to his old friend Bigi. At the same time, he introduced the select store format to the world.” subtitle=”Anecdotes of Takeo Kikuchi 4″]
In 1984, Mr. Kikuchi decided to leave Men’s Bigi in order to take the next step and moved to World. There, he finally launched his own eponymous brand, ” Takeo Kikuchi. With World handling the business side of the company, Kikuchi concentrated on production, and together with World, he explored design activities that involved not only clothing design but also various other things surrounding clothing. The result was the TK Building in Nishi-Azabu, which opened in 1986. In addition to the clothes produced by Takeo Kikuchi, the company imported clothes from overseas designers that it could not produce itself, and the building also had a café bar where customers could listen to music, a bar bar, and a billiard hall. At the time, select stores were few and far between, and the DC brand that he had created was at its height, but he had once again done pioneering work.
Mr. Kikuchi added a music bar and billiard room to the TK Building, which he produced himself. He loves both music and billiards, and he has packed his favorite things into the building, especially music, to the extent that he says, “I have always put myself in places where sound is played.” He loves places where music is played and where people gather. He does not immerse himself in the music, but rather loves the atmosphere of the place where the sound is played. He was attracted to the off-tempo sense of rhythm that Japanese people do not have, and he was especially devoted to black jazz. Kikuchi creates clothes based on what he feels in the place where sound is played, and it is not just his imagination that he feels musicality in Takeo Kikuchi’s clothes.
Takeo Kikuchi grew steadily, partly because DC brands were still in full swing at the time of its inception, and the company scaled up one after another within its own brand. The company expanded vigorously by developing a line that focused on specific categories, such as suits for suits and shirts for shirts, which Kikuchi conceptualized as the specialties of each item, and later developed a separate brand for suits as ” Takeo-Kikuchi Suits. The company also began full-scale development under license, focusing on accessories such as neckties, belts, and watches, which spilled over into markets separate from the Takeo-Kikuchi brand. Kikuchi himself describes these business models as “the culmination of the brand’s success.
Incidentally, Mr. Kikuchi, who has worked on many brands including Men’s Bigi as well as Takeo Kikuchi, says that he “has never been conscious of trends” when making clothes. There is no trend in front of Mr. Kikuchi, and he does not follow the trend, but goes ahead of it. Because Mr. Kikuchi lives in the present, he is not conscious of trends, but feels them and creates them himself.
Anecdotes of Takeo Kikuchi 5Passion and vitality to lead in the field at the age of 85
Real from the launch of Bigi In 2004, Kikuchi, who had been pursuing “real clothes” since the launch of Bigi, decided to leave the brand to the younger generation and launched a new brand, “40carats & 525,” based on his belief that “real clothes require ideas that match the target age of the wearer. However, eight years later in 2012, Kikuchi felt that his design, style, and philosophy had become neglected, and he returned to the Takeo Kikuchi scene as creative director. At that point, he was already 73 years old. He then opened a flagship store on Shibuya’s Meiji Street, and in 2015, for the first time in 13 years, presented a collection in collaboration with London culture at the Tokyo Collections. 2024 will mark his 85th birthday, and even today, Kikuchi’s passion and vitality are still evident as he continues to work tirelessly in the field to preserve the ideas and style he has cultivated for future generations. His passion and vitality continue to make Takeo Kikuchi grow.
In 2024, the 40th anniversary year of the brand, the brand will return to its roots and launch a top-of-the-line ” The Flagship” was launched. For this label, the brand is reissuing the ” white tag ” with white letters on a white background, which was created at the time of the brand’s founding in the hope that people would see the products themselves rather than the brand’s name.
Next, we’ll show you what Takeo Kikuchi has to offer!
Takeo Kikuchi's Appeal 1Based on British style. Timeless design that emphasizes Takeo Kikuchi's uniqueness without being bound by trends.
Takeo Kikuchi is based on traditional British style, with the three philosophies of “coolness,” “careful craftsmanship,” and “richness,” as well as a trend-independent Kikuchi creates clothes with his own sensibility and without being bound by trends. The brand theme is “LONDON POP. As mentioned above, Mr. Kikuchi seeks “reality” in his clothes, so he designs them with the wearer in mind, so as not to create an unrealistic designer’s ego. Kikuchi’s designs are characterized by his playful spirit. By playfully incorporating the needs of the world into his timeless items, he has developed a large number of items that make fashion enjoyable.
Check out Takeo Kikuchi’s items
The charm of Takeo Kikuchi (2)
Most of Takeo Kikuchi’s items are manufactured in factories in Japan, and the care in manufacturing is reflected everywhere. The materials include wool, cashmere, and wool. The materials used include wool, cashmere, linen, and other high quality materials that are comfortable to wear and highly durable. Before Mr. Kikuchi launched Bigi, the president of a certain clothing store provided him with travel funds to “see the world,” as he had never traveled abroad before, and he spent two months in the United States and Europe in the 1960s, when the fashion scene was booming. The know-how he accumulated by dismantling prewar military uniforms and work clothes collected during that trip and researching patterns and sewing was the foundation for the comfortable fit of his clothes.
Mr. Kikuchi is also very interested in sustainability. He uses fabrics that contribute to eco-friendliness as much as possible, and always considers whether or not materials will be wasted when designing his products. Mr. Kikuchi has been interested in ecology since around the 1970s, and has a background in replacing old denim with new products. He also participated in the Cool Biz movement for three years when it was introduced by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to combat global warming. He has been producing many sustainable items, such as jackets equipped with Swedish antibacterial and deodorant “polyzine” to make summer more comfortable, and actively adopting eco-friendly materials.
Check out Takeo Kikuchi’s items.
The appeal of Takeo Kikuchi (3)Developing unique collaborations involving various cultures in addition to fashion
Mr. Kikuchi, who considers “play is work,” has a deep knowledge of various cultures, In 2021, Takeo Kikuchi will team up with Tomica, which celebrated its 50th anniversary the previous year, to release items that combine the “coolness” and “excitement created by playing with miniature cars” with Takeo Kikuchi’s concept of “sex appeal and a sense of fun. The new items are a cross between the Takeo Kikuchi concept of “coolness” and “excitement created by playing with miniature cars. The Toyota 2000GT, Nissan Skyline HT Turbo RS, and Nissan Skyline GT-R were selected as famous cars, and the designs reflect bold graphics of drawings and signal colors specially drawn up for the Tomica specifications.
Also released was a special collaboration with musician Tomoyasu Hotei, who had previously designed costumes for his live tours. The guitarism pattern and “G” mark, which is one of Mr. Hotei’s icons, are expressed in three dimensions using a special stamping technique, and chic black is used as the main color. Despite its bold design, this collaborative item expresses Takeo Kikuchi’s chic and relaxed style.
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