Viewing NIGO: From Japan with Love

Human made.

Ever wondered the link between Kenzo and Bathing Ape? Well, the Design Museum helps to weave a red thread in the world’s first retrospective dedicated to NIGO this week, charting the career of the iconic Japanese designer who helped redraw the boundaries between streetwear, luxury fashion, music and branding.

Bringing together over 700 objects, with around 600 drawn from NIGO’s own archive, NIGO: From Japan With Love follows his journey from the backstreets of Harajuku to the Paris runway, from A Bathing Ape to Billionaire Boys Club, HUMAN MADE, KENZO and his numerous collaborations.

What makes the exhibition especially compelling is the attention it pays to the act of collecting as a creative force in itself. A recreation of NIGO’s teenage bedroom, rare early BAPE pieces, hand-thrown ceramics and a life-size glass tea house all point to a practice built through reference, obsession and memory. Much more than a fashion retrospective, it is a portrait of how one designer turned subculture into a creative universe of his own. Book now and get your fix of one of the most influential creative worlds of the last three decades.