Takuya Angel

Japanese: たくやゑんじぇる
field: apparel
type: manufacturer
style: other
market: women, men, children

url: Takuya Angel official site

Fashion designer Takuya Sawada (1967) started Takuya Angel in 1995, shortly after an earthquake devastated Kobe. It may have been this experience of the Kobe Quake that inspired Sawada to look for inspiration in Japan’s past. “Since the end of WW II only Western fashion has entered Japan. Japanese love to import things. They have a policy of having no policy.”

Sawada wanted to bring Japan back into fashion. “I wanted to create something new. I always thought it would be wonderful if everybody wore kimono. I figured it should be possible to combine clothes from the Jomon Era (10,000 BC ~ 300 AD) with those of modern times. There was nothing like that. I myself wanted to wear things like that.”

Takuya Angel is a wonderful mix of old and new, East and West, fake and real. Bright colors combined with somber black. Material like Cupra (Cuprammonium Rayon) combined with cotton twill. Sawada is not inhibited by what is right and what is wrong and what can and cannot be done. He is 100% self taught and as matter of policy leaves all pattern-making to someone else. “I draw the forms I imagine and let another person do the patterning. I just decide the shape and colors. I’m afraid that if I study patterning I may just think ‘this is impossible’.”

Many of Takuya Angel designs are inspired by clothes that Samurai wore in ancient times. Sawada deliberately uses the Japanese terms: ‘hitatare, haori, hakama, kyahan, geta’. It is quite a departure from the modern Japanese habit to give an English moniker to everything that must appear new. Even if there is a good Japanese word for it.

Sawada never makes these ancient clothes exactly as they were. He adapts the shape to the needs of modern life, and uses modern materials whenever possible: cupra, polyester, gabardine, velvet, fake fur. Often he incorporates parts of antique kimono in his clothes. This means that almost every item is different, because it is impossible to find more than one kimono of exactly the same design. His creations are also inspired by anime and manga.

It is a tiny brand, but Takuya Angel has an impact that goes far beyond its actual size. If you have seen Sawada’s clothes once you never forget them. The people who wear them, don’t just wear them, they worship them.

selected lines
Takuya Angel

selected shops
Harajuku, Tokyo
COXY176 Bldg 203
1-7-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0001
PH: (81) 03-3478-5867

〒150-0001
東京都渋谷区神宮前 1-7-10
COXY176ビル 203

office address:
COXY176 Bldg 203
1-7-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0001

〒150-0001
東京都渋谷区神宮前 1-7-10
COXY176ビル 203

phone: (81) 03-3478-5867
fax: (81) 03-3478-5867

related links:
Official site

Last updated on 08-10-2007 04:43 (Viewed 2955 times)

Review Takuya Angel