PROFILE
Born in Tokyo in 1974. Creative director of brands and stores including L'ECHOPPE, BOUTIQUE, and J.B. ATTIRE, etc. His first fashion brand FOUNDOUR is scheduled for release in February 2024. FOUNDOUR" is scheduled for release in February 2024.
PROFILE
In 1993, he and a group of friends began silk-screening under the name "FORTY PERCENT AGAINST RIGHTS®". In 1996, he launched WTAPS, a full-fledged apparel line that reflects his cultural influences, and in 2015, he launched DESCENDANT, a line of universal items based on the theme of connecting the present to the next generation. He is currently the director of these three brands.
Rather than designing clothes, I wanted to create graphics.
This is a very unexpected combination, isn't it?
Kaneko: Yes, I do. Do you do a lot of this kind of dialogue work?
Nishiyama: Not so much these days.
Do you have any contact with people like Kaneko-san who come from select stores?
Nishiyama: I don't have a title, but I am not usually conscious of titles or communities. If I have a chance to meet someone, I just talk with him or her as the occasion arises.
Kaneko: Perhaps we were too conscious of such a community on our own. You are very flat, aren't you, Mr. Nishiyama?
Nishiyama: It is true that from the outside, there may be an impression that you belong to a community. Like being in the Harajuku area.
Kaneko: That is why I think many people will find it surprising to see us talking like this.
You are both the same age and from Tokyo, so you have a lot in common. However, we have never crossed paths before.
Nishiyama: What did you do in your 20s?
Kaneko: I started working at an apparel mass merchandiser right after I graduated from high school and stayed with that company until I was 22. After that, I joined BAYCREW'S and was assigned to a store called "EDIFICE" and have been a buyer ever since.
Nishiyama: What themes were you buying on?
Kaneko: It's French, isn't it? But I entered the fashion world through American casual, so I had no idea what it was. There was no one to teach me, so I was always thinking and imagining "What is French? I was always thinking about it in my mind and imagining what French was while I was stocking up. There was so much I didn't know, so I was always researching. I was having a lot of fun, and I was really absorbed in it.
Nishiyama: Did you also stand in the store?
Kaneko: I was standing up. I started to focus on buying in the middle of my career. Because of that, I had always been devoted to fashion. I didn't have time to follow culture.
Nishiyama: That's right. We are living in the same era, but we are following different paths.
Nishiyama-san, have you always lived in Harajuku?
Nishiyama: I was born in Shibuya, and skateboarding is my origin. There was a skate store in Harajuku, and for me, Harajuku is more strongly associated with skateboarding than fashion. Later, Jun Takahashi and NIGO® launched a store called "NOWHERE," and I started to participate in it little by little. I was the youngest person in that area, so I was looking at the scene from an objective point of view. I was not aware that I was at the center of the scene.
Kaneko: I was watching the seniors working hard.
Nishiyama: When I was a teenager, I bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and had to pay the mortgage on it, so I worked at a pizza parlor, a billiards shop, and Stussy. So I got into clothes from the culture of skateboarding and motorcycles.
Kaneko: So you started designing clothes.
Nishiyama: Rather than designing clothes, I wanted to create graphics. I liked graphics on skateboards, and movie, magazine, and music jackets, and was influenced by those things. So I started printing collages and other things on T-shirts because I couldn't draw.
Kaneko: You continue to do so even now, don't you?
Nishiyama: I'll get to know the clothes later, but our younger staff may know more about fashion than I do.
For example, did you have a period of time when you were into vintage clothes and collected them?
Nishiyama: I didn't feel like I was collecting. I liked the culture, so I got knowledge from the music being listened to, the movies being watched, and the books being read in that culture. I learned that "people of this culture wear this kind of clothes. I naturally added those things to my own. So I didn't intend to wear biker fashion or skater fashion. Rather, I wanted to deviate from that.
Kaneko: How did you dress when you rode your motorcycle?
Nishiyama: Harleys were not ridden by young people like they are today. They would wear a leather vest over a black T-shirt, Levi's® and engineer boots. So we decided to stop wearing black and start wearing white, and we also started wearing Patagonia®.
He was trying to do something that no one else was doing.
Nishiyama: It may have been illegal at the time. But it was the age of mixed culture, and we were influenced by it.
Kaneko: I am from Mitaka.
Nishiyama: Weren't there a lot of bikers and such?
Kaneko: That's right. That's why I was so scared (laughs). I used to go to Kichijoji, Ueno, and Shimokita for shopping. I almost never went to Shibuya or Harajuku until I was over 20.
Nishiyama: It is true that Shibuya and Harajuku may not have had anything that Kaneko-san would have liked.
Kaneko: I read a lot of magazines, so I could get information, but the context of Shibuya and Harajuku was different from my own. So I thought I should not enter there. I just couldn't get close to those areas. In retrospect, I may have been drawing my own boundaries.
Nishiyama: I see. I kind of understand that feeling. I think Mr. Kaneko is an orthodox person. The Harajuku seniors I was talking about earlier are about 4 to 6 years older than myself, and they are strongly influenced by European culture, such as UK punk culture. I, on the other hand, liked the American culture that "Popeye" was sending out, and I couldn't share the information I was getting there with my seniors. I think it must be a generational thing.
So I can somewhat understand the feeling that Mr. Kaneko was going to Kichijoji, Ueno, and Shimokita. Shimokita was my way home from school, so I went there every day.
