Takizawa

Naoki (1960). Japanese designer. He graduated from the Kuwasawa Design School in 1981, and then joined, the following year, the Miyake Design Studio. At first he was in charge of the Plantation line, but in 1989 he began to work on the womenswear Collection and, in 1992, he became an associate designer. In 1993 he was given full responsibility for the menswear line that bears his name: Issey Miyake Men by Naoki Takizawa. In September 1998, he received the Mainichi Fashion Grandprix, a recognition that the Mainichi newspaper, one of the leading Japanese dailies, awards each year to professionals who have distinguished themselves in the field of fashion.
&Quad;2001, January. For Milan Moda Uomo, the new Fall-Winter Collection of Takizawa for Issey Miyake was a genuine poetic performance, divided into three phases, for three different methods of dressing. Three imaginary worlds recreated on the runway, the worlds of shadow, ice, and light. In a stylistic and chromatic equilibrium, the man in the shadows wears short jackets, or long ones stretching to the knee, vests and sweaters with soft and destructured lines, in indefinite tones of “non-color,” or in earth tones, in wool, velvet, and suede. The man on ice prefers orientalizing lines, jackets and shirts with Korean-style collars, long scarves worn like shawls over the jackets, flashy woolen boas around the neck, and fur-lined hats, all in dark-blue and black. Then color and fantasy patterns burst forth: the man in the sunlight wears shirts and sweaters with colorful stripes, ecru vests with orange designs, and is surrounded by the brightest colors, orange, green, and red. And the runway presentation culminates in a burst of enthusiasm, an erupting wave of joy: the models dance, leap, hurtle into the air, stepping on jackets and shirts, scarves and berets.
&Quad;2001, March. It was a cherry-blossom festival, the petals that fall in the winter and cover the heads of the models and the runway in showers. The outfits were printed with black and white patterns, the skirts and tunics were very colorful, orange and brown, dark blue, red, and green.
&Quad;2001, April. Libellula, the new hi-tech eyewear, designed by Naoki Takizawa and Alain Mikli. Conceived in France but manufactured in Japan, after three years of design, they have the lightness and colors of the dragonfly (in Italian, “libellula” means dragonfly), thanks to the use of such materials as titanium, acetate and grilamid. The glasses fold away into an egg-shaped case.
&Quad;2002, April. On the runways of Paris the woman of Issey Miyake, designed by Naoki Takizawa, was enveloped in long ribbons of cloth, stitched in a sartorial manner. She was wrapped in luminous silk like a silkworm in a cocoon. Long, almost monastic clothing moves in subtle interplays of plissé, jackets and blazers mimic the motions of a waves lapping at the shore, long scarves undulated around necks, everything is shifting and iridescent. References to nature in the accessories as well, shiny and silky. Handbags that open and close like mussels, backpacks like scarab beetles, and little shell-shaped bags on belts.
&Quad;2002, June. For the Summer menswear Collection, the ideas were colorful. Stripes, both broad and thin, in various combinations of color, a patchwork that cheers up the metropolitan style. Long, baggy Bermuda shorts, complete with short, straight jackets, smocks, flowered or in double-face.
&Quad;2003, January. In a runway presentation dedicated to travelers, the most appropriate outwear, according to Miyake’s protégé, is the poncho. A traditional piece of outerwear that is redesigned: “It helps to protect travelers, it frees them from constriction. Jack London would have liked it.”