BEHIND THE CORNER of the notorious Harajuku rossing, behind the flood of kids in crazy colour costumes, there is the headquarters of W-Taps Visual Uparmored in an old building on the ground floor. When you walk through the heavy metal door, you'll see the sanctuary of street culture. Covered in industrial lights, lines of Harley and Triumph bikes, and piles of CDs, books and analogue videotapes line the walls. This is the atelier of Tetsu Nishiyama aka TET, the co-founder of Neighborhood, one of the leading streetwear labels in Japan, and the designer of his own label W-Taps. W-Taps (pronounced Double Taps) unique approach to military clothing, blending them with his love of skate and bike culture earned him a global reputation as one of the most talented designers in street fashion. His followers are not only the kids on the street but also world-renowned artists, stylists, msicans and even huge compamies such as Nike and Vans. Having grown up in Shibuya, the center of Tokyo, unlike most designers who come to the captial from all over Japan, he was able to experience every part of underground culture that happened there. He is the golden child of Harajuku Street fashion and one of its finest products. Here Tet talks exclusively about his history, his influences about the 4 main elements in his career. This is the story of how street brands have survived and where they are heading. Weclome to the world of Visual Uparmored.

Jun Takhashi created his first Grace doll two years ago for a project with A-Magazine in Antwerp. At once fiendish and enchanting, the doll had a quietly authoritarian presence and magical aura. Jun was mesmerised by his creation and started fashioning Grace's of all different shapes, sizes and proportions at an alarming rate. From tiny babies measuring a mere 10cm in height, to colossal hunch-backed matraiarchs scaling over 6 meters, one by one these weird and wonderful creatures came to life. With each doll Jun unleashed on the world, he ran the cautionary moniker, 'White, fluffy creatures with luminous eyes. Generally peaceful towards humans, they might become defiant due to their territorial nature. It is advised to keep at a cautious distance from them.' The inquisitive relationship between Graces and humans is explored in Jun's paranomrmal photo journal, Grace, released late last year in conjunction with his spring/summer 09 collection that bore the same name. For the proect Jun created a whole army of Grace (50 in total), complete with doll-like hands, vintage jewels, lace dresses and an eery bicycle light positioned like a Cyclops's eye in the centre of each doll's head. The light when switched on gave each doll the otherworldly quality Jun had been searching for. Recruiting the expertise of photographer Katsuhide Morimoto - who has worked closely with Jun for the last few years on his Undercover editorials - and the Japanese set designer Enz, Jun drew up the storyboard shown here, capturing the dolls from sunrise to sunset, invading housees, trawling the Japanese countryside, scaring citizens, growing in testubes and hanging like bats from the branches of trees. It marks the start of a new chapter for Jn with Undercover scheduled as the special guest at this year's Pitti Immagine Uomo event in Florence, where Jun will be unveiling his menswear collection for spring/summer 2010. Fusing Japanese street fashion with his unmistakable post-punk romanticism, the collection promises to be at once mysterious, beautiful, and eerily poetic. We caught up with Jun to discuss the project, the relationship between the Graces and Undercover and his own personal journey towards a new kind of Utopia.



Hi Jun, Grace reads like a diry to me. What was the thinking behind the photographs?

I have been making these pictures for over three years now, so I decied to make a book about them. I worked closely on the story with my team, my set designers and photographers. This was how the story about the core existence between human beings and the Grace came out. Now I'm thinking it might reflect the story of my personality, and my need to build a relationship between Graces and myself...

Did the idea for the Graces come to you in a dream?

No, I'd been picturing the abstract look of the Graces in my head for ages and ages, so eventually I decided to make some models of them. It was instinct.

What is the relationship between Graces and fashion?

I was bored with doing catwalk shows so I started to think about other ways to showcase my clothes. This photo book was our attempt. So, the Graces were the starting point and the fashion followed.

What was the inspiration?

My daughters inspired them.

Did having children make a big difference to your outlook on life?

A child's personality is very innocent but at the same time it's a hostile, so yes having children did make a difference.

Do you feel living in Tokyo is a hostile environment?

I feel strange living in Tokyo and strange sometimes in fashion too.

What have been the most surreal moments in your career so far?

Doing a catwalk show is a very surreal thing. As a designer you have to create showpieces for the runaway, so your collection stands out.

What is fashion about today?

This is a hard question.

Do you think it's more than clothing? When you started Undercover it was about music and clothing.

When I started my career I thought making clothes that stand out was what it was all about, but about eight years ago I started to think about making my clothes more real. Something that people can wear. Maybe that's it, the realistic function of clothes.

You've grown up, and now you've gone beyond the performance part of fashion.

I like fashion, but at the same time I like drawing and making things. Today I like to do both. Fashion is more about production; art is more about instinct and what I feel. I want to strike a balance between them both.

With Grace you have made a children's book for adults.

Children are frightened of it. They like the small creatures, but are scared of the big ones.

Are your dolls always good natured and kind?

Yes, they are gentle.

What is your idea of Utopia?

Being with my children in Kamakura, doing nothing. It's wonderful to be with them. Since having a family I don't want to be famous any more. Of course I want to continue creating, but I just want to make things that are fun and interesting.

What about music? What has been the soundtrack to your story?

Something calm, strange and beautiful, yet also noisy. It's good to keep a balance.

How do you keep calm?

By nurturing my own life, my real likfe, and doing something I enjoy. I try to have no stress in my life. I really don't know how to do that but I think it's probably by spending time with my family. In the office it's really busy all of the time. So it's difficult to stay calm. It's very hard to be the boss; we are a team.

When punk started, the financial situation was very tough. Once again we are in the middle of a difficult financial sityation. What influence do you think this will have on creativity?

I'm not sure if something new is coming out of the current financial situation or not, but I think it's important that each person knows their own capacity. It's also important to revalue everything in the hope that something new might come. I wonder whether there will be any sensational things like punk in the future. Punk expressed the strongest part of human nature. I would love to see something beyong my imagination, beyong my expectations, something to blow my mind. Maybe I have to die to see that.

Do you think fashion and creativity have the power to provide an ecape? I think you touch on this in Grace; every picture has a light shining in the dark.

Yes there is always something shining. The photograph titled The Hole Of Innocence (below) is an example of looking for something innocent in our world. I wish this world we live in could be like that. When you look at children and babies they are very innocent. Byt then as we grow up we start to do things that are not innocent, even reading the newspapers, they are full of so many impure issues. I hope the world will one day, once again, be very innocent.

from i-D magazine May 2009