NAM: travelling fashion by Toko Kumagai

Being Japanese and living in Tokyo you sometimes find yourself in this odd situation where pretty much eveyone around you is Japanese, but speaks English to a few other foreigners in the room. That is one of these situations where I actually realize that many of us have travelled quite a lot around the world and have lots of interesting stories to tell. One of these Japanese Internationals is Toko Kumagai, a girl who went to NY 10 years ago aspiring to become a fashion designer. Toko-chan then started her own fashion brand NAM after 5 years mixing various cultures in her collections: New York hip-hop with French haute couture techniques, graffiti mingled with Japanese motor-gang’s statements, Mexican wrestling masks, Mayan and Jewish motifs and posh British fox hunting. Strongly rooting her design in everyday life, she is inspired by friends and collaborators from all around the globe. PingMag talked to Toko-chan, the designer of NAM about influences and current projects.

Written by Kaori Nishida

Toko-chan wearing her own hat

Toko-chan, you studied haute couture fashion in New York? Where did you study and who actually taught you?

Well, during the first two years in NY I actually spent my time at language school. Then I moved to study fashion at Maison Sapho School of Dress Making, specializing in haute couture. It was a very small school and the old lady must have been nearly 70 years old. She taught me in one-to-one sessions. It was a complete world of needlework. I learned every possible classic technique from this old lady - everything from embroidery to tailoring. I am really happy that I accquired that sort of knowledge!

You started your own fashion brand NAM in 2001. What is the brand’s concept?

I want to unite different cultural and subcultural identities from various countries that I encountered during my stay in NY. One thing that totally stunned me in New York was the variety of foreign cultures that co-existed there. Japan has become international, too to some extent, but it is still miles away from something like New York where basically everyone is a foreigner in one way or the other. You get to eat truly local Cuban cuisine cooked by my friend’s grandma. People there keep their background strongly intact. I sort of learned to get to know the world through my friends there. NAM was born from this life of mixing and yet keeping the background strong, so every season my designs are meant to represent some other countries.

I heard that your spring/summer 2003 ‘Neo Grentai’ collection which was inspired by Bosozoku - violent Japanese motorbike gangs - was quite a hit!?

I exhibited this collection based on the narcissistic world of Japanese motorbike gangs. Those gang boys write some kind of statements or slogans on city walls during their rides and follies. In collaboration with graffiti artist ‘Ease’, I re-created some of their statements and sewed them on these long jackets which are also part of their gang fashion. I strongly recommend you take a look at their statements if you can, because they painfully reflect their loneliness and volatile pleasures. I think those are amazing!

Other than slogan embroideries, I combined Kimono dresses with emblems and sport suits, mixing New Yorkean and Japanese subculture. I really wanted to use NAM to introduce this original Japanese subculture to the fashion world, especially because most Japanese like to copy foreign output.

There are so many masks in the NAM collections. What is it that fascinates you about them?

I started making masks in New York after 9/11. Everyone there had experienced the same but after that day the air in the town got truly evil. The media blatantly campaigned for the fight against terrorism, but I felt it was wrong to redirect all this anger to someone else. We, as the common people had already enough to cope with: our fight against diseases, fight for your dreams, or even being able to pay the rent, etc.

I wanted to remind people of their own brilliant fights giving them something to fight in: glittering, bright coloured wrestling masks from Mexico. The mask were made in collaboration with the NY street art crew Faile. It was such a beautiful collaboration.

As a contrast to the colourful mask series, the fall/winter 2005 exhibition ‘Art for Art’s Sake’ held at HP France in Ginza was completely in black and white…

This was a homage to Russian painter Marc Chagall. As he was an orthodox Jew I used many Jewish motifs such as the Star of David. Since all clothes were either in black or white we reflected Chagall’s painting universe in the models’ make-up.

Art for Art’s Sake fall/winter 2005 (HPGRP Library Ginza):Photo by Becky Yee

Art for Art’s Sake fall/winter 2005 (HPGRP Library Ginza):Photo by Becky Yee

Hopping through your collections - the latest collection of fall/winter 2006 exhibited at BBS Store Harajuku until recently uses many animal shapes and patterns… Why is that?

The concept for this collection was “hunter”. I was thinking about the things in the news ranging from mad cow disease, bird influenza to the Asian Tsunami, etc. Those are all alarming signs for us humans demonstrating that we have obviously forgotten to thank the earth, but instead keep destroying it.

Nature and animals provide our food and are the very foundation of our creative energy. They also get turned into clothes to keep us warm. I am not a member of any animal rights group or anything, but I wanted to make people more aware of what they are doing and what they use. It was a way to show gratitute to nature and animals.

Again, the animal masks were done together with our wonderful collaborator Faile. They did the silkscreen designs on the fabric. This time I applied the good old British gentleman style using chic and elegant herringbone tweed and then mixing these classical elements with a sporty flavour.

The Hunter: NAM with Faile and Masayuki Yoshinaga, fall/winter 2006 collection:Photo by Masayuki Yoshinaga

The Hunter fall/winter 2006 - NAM with Faile and Masayuki Yoshinaga:Photo by Masayuki Yoshinaga

Any ideas for your next collection?

Well, I’m not sure yet but I was thinking of another homage to someone, like the homage I did to Marc Chagall.

The Hunter collection fall/winter 2006, NAM with Faile and Masayuki Yoshinaga:Photo by Masayuki Yoshinaga

from the The Hunter collection:Photo by Masayuki Yoshinaga

NAM’s clothes are the integration of her daily life with friends, thoughts and style. The street appeal of graffiti and the classic haute couture technique go hand in hand in her collections. She stitches most of the embroideries and accessories by hand. It is almost as if she would sew different cultures and influences from her friends and collaborators into her clothing. Thank you Toko-chan – we look forward to your next collection!

INFO: NAM’s website is due to open on New Year’s Day 2007 together with the sunrise!

7 Comments

1. Wonderful article. The Neo Grentai images are really nice

   Posted by: Chris on December 27th, 2006 at 2:49 pm

2. Really interesting article with some of the best photos seen on pingmag.
   Thank you!

   Posted by: Eugê on January 4th, 2007 at 9:08 am

3. thank you nice blog :)
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   Posted by: FOREX on September 24th, 2010 at 6:58 am

4. maurers

   Posted by: maurers on February 22nd, 2011 at 5:41 am

5. This is exactly the thing I’ve been looking for! Though I can’t speak a word of French, I had to order a copy!

   Posted by: cctv kamera on February 27th, 2011 at 3:46 pm

6. Very Nice! makes me remind the coloured performance of the early pink floyd!

   Posted by: christian louboutin on November 10th, 2011 at 12:56 pm

7. NAM: travelling fashion by Toko Kumagai good post423

   Posted by: air multiplier on April 20th, 2012 at 7:56 pm

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