WHO IS NIGO, THE FASHION PERSONALITY SO TALKED ABOUT IN THE FASHION JET SET

Contrary to the common opinion that wants the USA to be the cradle of streetwear, the true homeland in which was born, what dominates the catwalks today, is Japan. Nigo, in particular, the Japanese personality who is making headlines for collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Off-White and many others is proof of this. But who is him?

Born in Japan in 1970, Nigo is the creator of the A Bathing Ape clothing line, the forerunner of what, in the fashion scene, is today called streetwear. His adventure in the fashion world began in fact in a small shop, where Nigo sold some Bape shirts and camouflage sweatshirts, which became very popular among the teenagers of the time. But it was in 2002 that he consecrated Nigo as the creator of streetwear with the Bapesta sneaker, which was called “The epitome of collectible sneakers”. The sneaker had a design very similar to that of the Nike Air Force, but with the Bapesta logo instead of the Swoosh.

A few years passed until Nigo began to collaborate with some of the most important names in the contemporary fashion jet set: he met Pharrel Williams in 2005, with whom he created Ice Cream Footwear. A few years later, however, it was the turn of Virgil Abloh, Kanye West‘s assistant at the time, during the launch of a sneaker created in collaboration for A Bathing Ape. From there the professional bond between the three became indissoluble, consecrating and shaping what we all call streetwear today.

In a recent interview with Vogue, Virgil Abloh, creative director of the well-known Off-White brand and of the Louis Vuitton Men line, defined Nigo as his first mentor in the streetwear universe. Nigo and James Jebbia, founder of Supreme, were for streetwear, according to Abloh, what Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent were for fashion. They appropriated a culture and made it something eternal and palpable. It is still the same Virgil who claimed to be from Nigo the merit of showing him how, step by step, a brand is formed … could we not expect a sensational collaboration?

The reasons why Virgil Abloh chose Nigo to create the new Louis Vuitton Men collection are therefore more than clear. His know-how from the fashion world, combined with his enormous culture of street and art (he was the one who commissioned the famous Kaws Album to Kaws, valued at almost $ 15 million today), will be put to the service of Abloh and Vuitton for a unique collection of its kind.

LV² is the name that Nigo and Virgil Abloh have chosen to give to their new Louis Vuitton collection. The name is meant to symbolize the double design approach developed by the creator of Bape, now creative director of Human Made, and Off-White. The graphic style of Nigo combined with the eccentric one of Virgil will consecrate the new chapter of streetwear…that is no longer streetwear. Tailoring becomes the protagonist mixed with the most contemporary street codes. To represent it total denim and graphics on hats, coats, trousers and bomber jackets. The textures are rich in stitching and patchwork elements. The details are perfectly studied as shown by the tailored pockets with the LV² logo, but also the bomber jackets with the graphics of Mount Fuji. The accessories are the result of a long search in the archives: Damier hats, fringed scarves, rectangular sunglasses but also hiking shoes, bags and dandy loafers to give the image of a perfectly fluid, elegant and a new streetwear male wardrobe.