The COMM

Hi, my name is…

Takahiro Abe!

What does vintage fashion mean to you?

It’s a useful category but I don’t actually see the importance of categorising things in that way so I’ve never really thought about what it means. When it comes to fashion, I first learnt about 1950s American culture from my father. I wore a mixture of styles inspired by global trends like Rockabilly, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Punk, and Jazz musicians when I was 20 years old (2010).

The more I learnt about older cultures, the more I realised that there are well-designed clothes that suit various settings and places. I decided to pursue that idea and that was when I seriously started looking into vintage fashion. Each era has an ideal image for men and women, and Western clothing highlights that appeal. I think that deepening one’s understanding of society can help me to build a future and understand the relationship between clothing and people.

Tell us about your barber shop.

The shop has a classic Art Deco vibe which is incorporated into the traditional Japanese barber shop booths. We want to create a barber shop that our customers can enjoy as it changes and matures.

The official name of the shop is the “Fuji” of Mt. Fuji and the Japanese word for “Orient”. It is called the “Fuji Oriental Barber Shop” in English. It goes without saying that Mt. Fuji is held in high regard in Japan, and we named the shop praying that we could utilize the techniques of the East and share it with the world.

 

 

Any last words?

I seriously want to change Japanese society. I have to start out by apologising for my harsh language.

Most of the new-builds in Tokyo have been boxy, ugly glass buildings and mediocre retro tower blocks, especially since the late 1980s. Everywhere is overflowing with things that focus only on productivity and are completely out of sync with nature. I feel like traditional Japanese culture has been pushed aside by unrefined rich people who have made big money from bad, nouveau culture. If we can love our families and ancestors, our hometowns and other people, we can also love Japan. And that is one of the ways that we can preserve our culture.

I think it’s really wonderful that each country has its own style, and I want to make a connection between our past culture and our current one so that Japan can become a proud country. I want to offer advice on how Japanese people should wear western clothes based on [an understanding of] the Japanese spirit, and Western talent and clothing.

Getting young people interested will come down to how it is conveyed and how I draw them in. I’m doing my best to become the guy who can achieve that!

 

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Barber shop Instagram
Images courtesy of Takahiro Abe.