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TETSUYA MIURA
Nigo and Masamichi Katayama • Emperors of Cool
Keeping a street-fashion label red hot for 10 years straight is impressive. Building an underground T-shirt line inspired by a movie that features talking apes into a fashion conglomerate revered by style mandarins across the globe is miraculous. Yet that is precisely what Nigo, 34, above, has done with his Tokyo-based empire, A Bathing Ape.
As a fashion student, stylist and DJ in the '90s, Nigo started selling T shirts sporting simian motifs and references to the 1968 sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes. The shirts quickly became badges of cool on the streets of Tokyo. Since then, Nigo has nurtured his company into a pop-culture powerhouse—including 22 stores, a hair salon, a café and a music label—by striking a balance between exclusivity and mass appeal. While his signature ape heads and camouflage patterns have appeared on everything from trucker hats to Pepsi bottles, the core fashion lines are still made in tightly controlled production runs and sold almost exclusively in Bathing Ape's often unmarked stores.
To create each of those retail outlets, Nigo turns to Masamichi Katayama, 38, who has become one of Tokyo's hottest designers, producing irreverent concepts for clients like Sony, Marc Jacobs and, especially, A Bathing Ape. At the brand's new store in New York City's SoHo, a conveyor belt rotates Nigo's colorful sneakers. In another shop, T shirts slotted between acrylic panels can be viewed from both sides but not touched. "Nigo is like Andy Warhol," says Japanese neo-Pop painter Takashi Murakami. "He creates a sense of mystery."
His current ambition—to open a hotel—goes way beyond design. "A Bathing Ape has never been just about fashion," says Nigo. "It's a whole lifestyle."
—By Jim Frederick and Michiko Toyama. With reporting by Coco Masters
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