Decoding Style Language with KAMIYA

When asked, Koji Kamiya has an immediate answer to what inspires KAMIYA, his self-titled designs. He smiles, points to himself and says ‘Kamiya’ with a proud grin. Kamiya as the standard bearer for KAMIYA isn’t so ‘Mirror mirror on the wall…’ as it might read. He just seems to value formative experiences, influences and observations. KAMIYA launched in 2023 sprouting from the roots of Koji Kamiya’s lessons in vintage shops, his appreciation for dirt bikes and skaters, classic rock and hip-hop. You could say KAMIYA is a motorcycle for archetypal male style semiotics. You might be right.

KAMIYA reconciles Bushido principles of samurai attitudes — what the Western world might call ‘guy code’ — in thoroughly modern menswear products. Street images bleed through KAMIYA from the tops of balaclavas to the uppers of their vulcanized ‘Chuck Taylors.’ Distressed cable knits, dye-treated baggy denim and silhouettes that reference Emile Hirsch and John Robinson in Lords of Dogtown just as easily as Kap G or Shameik Moore’s awkward fits in Dope. Where the KAMIYA S/S 24 debut Nothing From Nothing succeeded with lightness in tough boy uniforms, Time Is Blind for A/W 24 is pure percussion, ripped clothes finished with subtle glamour. Kamiya challenges a manly status quo by softening the ridges with delicate fabrications like rayon treated to appear as Tom Ford’s satin does.

KAMIYA leaves imprints of male countercultural underbellies on its surface. Men from hardcore, skate or rap scenes will immediately recognise these clothes. We all know what we do, did or will do in these clothes. You put your body on the line for what you love — or maybe who you loved — in clothes like these. KAMIYA is much more than a silhouette. Koji Kamiya sat down a few days before his upcoming S/S 25 Tokyo show to discuss vintage clothing, meaningful investment from Tokyo's fashion angel Mihara Yashuhiro and the significance of bruises on his catwalks.

M-C Hill: An overarching theme in your work is vintage style right? Ideas of the threadbare: threadbare denim, transparencies from moth-eaten fabrics with your hoodies. Even the style of your hoodies in their weathered fuzziness.

Koji Kamiya: The transparency hoodies were inspired by mosquito parkas. What other kind of hoodies did you want to ask about?

M-C Hill: Less ‘hoodie’ and more ‘themes.’ Themes across your work. What kind of subcultures or inspirations are you pulling from to drive collections? I have an idea, but you never want to assault your own opinion. What is Koji-san's work representing?

KK: Iconic images? Ako by Okada! I am inspired by my mentor the most.

M-C Hill: Who is Okada?

KK: Ako is a vintage shop in Osaka and Okada is the owner. The best shop in Osaka. This is my most influential person since I was a teenager. Ako is really good at mixing vintage and archive, it's a really unique and yeah, inspiring place.

M-C Hill: How do you take vintage ideas and make them current, not like a dusty closet?

KK: Vintage workwear can be very tight and more focused for workwear styles, like for trade professions. I try to make it more of a straight silhouette, make it more sophisticated as a brand, as KAMIYA. I am trying to balance something vintage-looking, but also, not. The balance of vintage is not just vintage.

M-C Hill: Do you make vintage styles into fashion by changing shapes? Your baggy trousers have this effect — slim in the thigh area, but baggy below the knee. Your hoodies are shrunken, but the t-shirt underneath is voluminous, blousy like a balloon. Is that talk between silhouettes where fashion comes through? Or is it more in the fabric treatments?

KK: Treatment is more important than the silhouette. I talk to people from treatment factories in Okayama and Kojima. We try to find new damage processing and age processing. Every season we try to do something new as well as updates to improve season upon season.

M-C Hill: In the first collection, treatments were more skate and graffiti-inspired. Your second collection had more workwear fabrications. Like winter workwear. Like if you could still skate in winter or BMX in the winter. Fabrics and treatments felt sturdy, much tougher for colder elements.

KK: So the first collection was more challenging. It was more challenging for a spring and summer mood. So I used age processing. We age-processed twice. It's sort of double processing.

M-C Hill: How does age processing work for spring-summer?

KK: More damage processing, but to create the depth for coloring and bleaching. More techniques are used in various combinations depending on the item.

M-C Hill: Can you explain double processing?

KK: The sun bleach treatment in look 15 for example, we bleached twice. We dyed twice for the effect.

M-C Hill: What about the yellow distressed jumper? How do you get the distressing and the holes?

KK: During the knitting process, holes are created by making sections of yarn that are not put through the needles. I specify the shape and location of the needle removal each time. There are various ways to make it look damaged, such as adding the weft yarn.

M-C Hill: You produce several looks in satin. Satin has an eveningwear, sensual stereotype. Yet you make satin for concerts or even skateboarding. That feels kinda hard. What is this aggressive approach to satin about?

KK: Satin has a nice feel, a good touch. Smooth hand. Satin and sun bleach is a good combination. That's why it comes up. It shows up very well with a certain sunbleach. I also wanted to use the delicate, sensitive fabric to express the more manly.

M-C Hill: What about the satin looks for fall? It's a consistent fabric in the collections.

KK: It's rayon.

M-C Hill: It’s RAYON?!?!?!

KK: Yeah, it's about the combination. By using the sensitive fabrics, I think that makes the collections stronger and like, heavy. That's why I used sensitive and delicate fabrics to express the world of KAMIYA.

M-C Hill: You spoke about expressing a type of manliness just now. Can you explain deeper? What are you saying about boys today through your work?

KK: I create based on the culture that men like. This is a personal viewpoint, but I feel it in motorcycles, blues artists of the past, and Japanese Bushido. It is more of a spiritual instinct than a design one. I think this is naturally projected into my style. There is nothing special nor anything limited that I want to convey since it is free for people to develop their own feelings about the clothes I design. Although there are many different male images nowadays.

M-C Hill: Define the world of KAMIYA.

KK: It's me. It's dudes. It's formed by my roots and culture. Like the vintage and like, bikers, skaters, rock, hip-hop. Mixing everything I like.

M-C Hill: Name some of your favourite musicians.

KK: J Dilla, do you know?

M-C Hill: [Frowns]…yes

KK: Yeah?

M-C Hill: No! I prefer Madlib.

KK: [Laughs]

M-C Hill: You like Jaylib?

KK: Who's that?

M-C Hill: [Shares images from phone] This is Jaylib, a group with J Dilla and Madlib. What songs helped you create the first collection?

KK: Billy Preston for the first collection. It was ‘Nothing From Nothing’ by Billy Preston.

M-C Hill: What about the second collection? You had all the percussion, those drummers in the show. So I'm wondering what you were listening to that designed the collection and conceived the show?

KK: Not much. I didn't get any inspiration from music this time. I just got it from a mood.

M-C Hill: Let's talk about the boys in the KAMIYA world again. Why are they so tall?!?!

KK: The models?

M-C Hill: The KAMIYA model is a giant.

KK: They're not really different from other collection’s models. They’re average height.

M-C Hill: Uh uh no! If you look at Masahiro-san's collections, they are tall. But if you look at MASU's collections, they don’t appear quite as tall as your models. Maybe it's how the camera is positioned? They look like giants.

KK: I am tall as well.

M-C Hill: Really?

KK: Yeah.

M-C Hill: How tall in inches?

KK: Seventy-two.

M-C Hill: So then that explains it. Kamiya really is KAMIYA. That's why the boys are so tall.

KK: It just looks like they're tall.

M-C Hill: Looks tall in every collection?!?! In every runway exit?!?! Every model I'm like jeez they're so tall!

KK: [Laughs]

M-C Hill: So you were inspired by Ako shop and Okada. What did you learn then from growing up in Yasuhiro-san's shop and those experiences?

Koji Kamiya: I thought I was supposed to be a vintage shop manager because I loved vintage clothing. But I wanted to learn more about brands. That's why I got into Mihara. Then there was a chance to be a designer under Mihara's group [fashion designer Mihara Yasuhiro]. A chance! I was just seeking the fashion I liked. And then there was an opportunity. I learned the ways to build a brand, how to plan a strategy and so much more. I may have learned everything I need to know.

M-C Hill: I met Mihara in January at his showroom. He is wonderful. He showed the clothes from his new collection. He presented a pair of shoes. I said ‘Oh Kamiya’s shoes!’ and he got almost angry. He said ‘Kamiya?’ And I said ‘Yeah Kamiya shoes.’ He said ‘No. Mihara.’ He asked ‘How do you know about Kamiya?’ I replied ‘Because I like his clothes. He's cool.’ And he said, ‘Oh, you know KAMIYA?’ I said, yeah he's cool. So I was very interested in ways that your world is different from Yasuhiro-san's world. There are similarities in terms of the distressing and fabrications, but your world has a different energy to it. Like, I maybe relate more to your world personally than Yasuhiro-san's world.

[Kamiya makes an expression of genuine gratitude]

M-C Hill: Let's talk about your footwear. After you released the first show last summer, you made a big promotion for your vulcanised rubber trainers. Almost like Vans, but the Terminator version of SK8-Low’s. They could kick the SK8-Low’s ass. How did you think about creating a shoe like this, which is very flat, but kinda looks like a truck?

KK: First, I create the shoes with Mihara together.

M-C Hill: That explains January!

KK: My roots for shoes are authentic Vans and Chuck Taylor. At the show, models are wearing one size bigger than their normal size.

M-C Hill: Why are they wearing a bigger size?

KK: I’m tall, but my feet are small.

M-C Hill: In a way, that puts you into each of the shows in a powerful way. Will you continue to have the models wear one shoe size larger as your career continues?

KK: Of course, I will continue this style! I usually buy the shoes in this way, so I will change how to balance depending on styling. People from Osaka always wear their Chuck Taylors bigger.

M-C Hill: Why do people from Osaka wear Chuck’s in larger sizes?

KK: The culture of wearing big shoes is a symbol of used clothes culture. At that time in Japan, when used clothes came in from the US, they were only available in larger sizes, so that was all you could buy. This fact has been passed down in each style! Also this aspect inspires KAMIYA's vintage style.

M-C Hill: So that’s why you made your own version of Chucks for fall 24, right?

KK: These collections are my authenticity, my original. [Flashes a pair of purple Kamiya ‘Chucks’ from A/W 24].

M-C Hill: THE VULCANISED!

KK: [Laughs]

M-C Hill: Those are fire! And the boots for the fall collection, did you design the boots or were those vintage?

KK:Yeah, that's a secret for the future. So hush! Shhhh!

M-C Hill: [Laughs] Okay then, let's talk about the shows. When the spring show started, a truck drove in with huge speakers blasting reggae. Then music changed to something electronic that exploded. Why start with reggae, then move into electronic?

KK: I tried to make a contrast to get people into the show more easily, to create tension.

M-C Hill: You start with a chill song as people are sitting down. Then you play something confrontational. Not in a bully way, just something to get people into the collection, the show, the models, the whole experience maybe?

KK: Yes.

M-C Hill: We have to talk about the makeup. In the spring show, models wore nose guards. Then in the fall collection, they wore cuts and bloody bruises. What does all that pain signify?

KK: Scars and burns are like, mens’ medals aren’t they?

M-C Hill: Got it.

KK: This time today is more diverse, but you still have to go through the world to use your body for work. It doesn't change.

M-C Hill: What about the snow falling in the first show? Why snow?

KK: People like something coming down from the sky. An ‘Ooh! Look at that!’ wonderment. People want a feeling, a little theater…you're really a big fan of KAMIYA.

M-C Hill: Well yeah! I annoyed Yasuhiro-san for asking ‘Where is Kamiya? Tell him I love him! The way he styles the boots with the socks so it looks strong and stacky, I even love that!’

KK: [Laughs and laughs].

M-C Hill: How is the new collection coming along? What are you listening to for the mood, for the rock vibe?

KK: ‘Mannish Boy’ by Muddy Waters. I am also trying to like, show overseas next year.

M-C Hill: That’s a game changer!

KK: I want to show in New York. I am not a Paris type of person.

M-C Hill: Do you know Kozaburo?

KK: Yes!

M-C Hill: He's someone I think is really good.

KK: Do you know Kawanishi from Landlord?

M-C Hill: We never met. His fall 18 collection was excellent! Loved it! Come to New York please? Would that be for the next fall collection?

KK: I cannot mention specific details right now, but I am planning to make announcements in the near future.

M-C Hill: Your stuff is in America at Mannahatta. How did you get a US stockist so soon?

KK: We still only have Mannahatta. I want more stockists in the US.

M-C Hill: Koji-san this has been so exciting! Here I'm going to show you an image.

KK: I think I know it.

M-C Hill: Takahiro Miyashita.

KK: Yes. Number (N)ine?

M-C Hill: Yeah, when you shared the silkscreen protos from next season, I got excited because it’s my vibe. Spring 25 looks really good.

KK: There are so many people here who love him. Takahiro Miyashita is their best hero in Japan.

M-C Hill: Oh he's amazing! But also the Mickey Mouse collection from four years ago for Takahiromiyashitathesoloist.

KK: Oh Okada! [Shares an image from Ako shop by Okada]

M-C Hill: Can you zoom in a little bit? OH!

KK: It's the…

M-C Hill: [Interrupts] Mickey statues! He's got the hard rock Mickey statues! The punk Mickey statues!

KK: At Ako by Okada.

M-C Hill: Does he sell or does he just collect it?

KK: He doesn’t sell the Mickey Mouse collection, but others.

M-C Hill: To think you grew up working at that store…

KK: I didn’t work for Okada's shop, I just shopped and learned from him. I look forward to your feedback on the upcoming collection!