The World of Viridi-anne
Finding the new Viridi-anne flagship store in Shibuya (chome 3-42-12 Ebisu Shibuya-Ku) is like finding a needled in a haystack. Located in a residential neighbourhood, rather than on a prominent commercial strip, it’s best to have the address written in Japanese and hand it over to a taxi driver to navigate. Like the store, located on the ground floor of an apartment building and below pavement level, this unique Japanese menswear label is ‘under the radar’.
The Shibuya store is a cavernous space with a deconstructed ambience the Japanese are renowned for. Concrete floors and simple steel clothing racks are as unpretentious as the modest designer Tomoaki Okaniwa, who is behind this menswear fashion label. Slim, like his clothing silhouettes, Okaniwa has presented his fine collections since establishing Viridi-anne in 2001 (under the company Caterpillar Products). Although sold throughout Europe, the designs of Viridi-anne have a hand-made, almost crafted quality. And everything is revisited and reinterpreted from the placement of pockets to the way a pair of trousers beautifully sits above a shoe; or a small split for that extra movement and perhaps offering the glimpse of a sock.
Like a number of great fashion designers who came to the industry from the outside, Okaniwa initially graduated in fine art at Tokyo Zoukei University, graduating in painting. “I can easily imagine a certain design in my mind and it has always been easy for me to capture that image in a drawing, even down to the fine details” says Okaniwa.
As few artists, even talented ones, make a living from their work, it’s not surprising that many, including Okaniwa, end up working in other creative fields. So a few years after graduating in painting, Okaniwa started designing clothing for women, initially with his wife and his first client. “Actually, the womenswear wasn’t a serious venture from the outset. We saw it as something that was simply fun and pleasurable, as well as allowing us to experiment with fabric and form,” says Okaniwa, although he clearly recalls the hours involved in production required for Caterpillar Products (established in 1987 and the year of the global recession) to survive. “All the samples and even some of the production were done by both of us, and often by hand. It was always the design rather than the business side that attracted me to the industry,” he adds.
In 2001, when the Viridi-anne label was conceived in considerably brighter economic times, Okaniwa was not flush with money. “It’s easy wanting to make clothes you can’t find in the market, but it’s particularly challenging when finance is limited,” says Okaniwa, who attributes the hand-made quality of his designs to his early beginnings with Caterpillar when many clothes were made by hand. So amongst the racks in the Viridi-anne store are baggy woollen drop-crutched trousers that appear to have been lovingly knitted. Jackets are equally as tactile, with some felted woollen fabric appearing as though hand-embroidered. Other jackets, such as Viridi-anne’s shearling and leather jackets have a stiffer quality, such as the high-neck jacket or woollen coat. And then there are the accessories, such as leather ankle boots, often worn with seven-eight length trousers.
Unlike many fashion designers that put their heads into exotic countries before each collection is released, Okaniwa stays firm to his vision and culture, creating clothes that speak of Japan, as well as appealing to his international audience of buyers. “I usually start each collection from my sketches and then move towards selecting the appropriate fabrics. There’s always a subtle theme for each collection, but it’s not obvious,” says Okaniwa, whose distinctive silhouettes often include layers from jackets, vests and slim-line or baggy trousers. And of course, the look often includes fingerless gloves for the winter collection.
Okaniwa has more recently presented his Spring Summer 2016 collection in Paris. “I mainly concentrated on more relaxed pieces, often exposing faded seams,” says Okaniwa who was inspired by David Bowie’s hit song Ashes to Ashes. “It’s fairly monochromatic, dark and you could say ‘cold’, not unlike ashes left after a fire. And because Viridi-anne is still a fairly niche fashion label in the world of men’s fashion, Okaniwa can still first and foremost satisfy his own vision rather than following worldwide trends. “I create men’s clothing for the type of things that I want to wear. Hopefully, the way I think also satisfies my clients,’ he says.
After 15 years since establishing Viridi-anne and having first shown in Paris 10 years ago, building on the past is as important for Okaniwa as what lies ahead. “It’s important to keep hold of my original vision, while still moving forward. But hopefully, when you pick up a garment with the Viridi-anne label, it will still feel hand-made and lovingly produced,” adds Okaniwa.
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