BAPE to KENZO: A Timeline of Nigo’s Career

Japanese streetwear brand A Bathing Ape is one of today's most popular and long-standing streetwear brands. Founded by Tomoaki Nagao (aka Nigo) in 1993 in the streets of Ura-Harajuku, BAPE transitioned from being an underground brand into a worldwide phenomenon through its iconic camouflage-designed clothing and lifestyle products.

Nigo's streetwear influence and extensive connections with some of the most important names in the fashion industry, such as Jun Takahashi, Hiroshi Fujiwara, Pharrell Williams, and Virgil Abloh, undeniably contributed to BAPE's growing popularity through the years.

But unbeknownst to many, Nigo announced his departure from the label in 2013 after selling BAPE to Hong Kong-based fashion conglomerate I.T Group in 2011. Fast forward to the present day, Nigo is now the Artistic Director at KENZO. And the question is, how did Nigo get to KENZO?

Read on to find out more about Nigo's complete career timeline!

Nigo is a fashion designer, DJ, record producer, and the creator of the Japanese clothing brand A Bathing Ape. Nigo was born on the 23rd of December 1970 in Maebashi, a city in the northern Kantō region of Japan. Raised by a mother who was a nurse and a father who worked as a metal fabricator, Nigo created and followed his path to becoming one of the most influential names in the fashion industry.

Throughout his time at BAPE, Nigo secured several collaborations and even launched subsidiary labels AAPE (by A Bathing Ape) and BAPY (Busy Working Lady).

Nigo's interest in fashion started when he discovered the Japanese men's fashion magazine Popeye. At first, he was crazy about America's Ivy League fashion trend from the '50s, a style that became prominent in Tokyo sometime around the '80s. Hip-hop culture then hit the streets, with the famous group Run-DMC being one of Nagao's early inspirations.

Japanese fashion magazines continued to inspire Nagao through his teenage years, thus motivating him to study editorial at the Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo when he was 18.

While pursuing his dream of becoming a fashion journalist, Nigo crosses paths with Japanese fashion designer Jun Takahashi (founder of UNDERCOVER), who later introduced him to Hiroshi Fujiwara, the founder of Fragment Design. Coincidentally, Nigo was already a fan of Fujiwara and Kan Takagi's monthly column, titled "Last Orgy", in a street culture magazine.

It didn't take long until Nagao and Fujiwara became best friends. Some of their friends eventually noticed that the two looked quite alike, giving Nagao his nickname "Nigo", which translates to "number two" in Japanese, implying that Nagao is Fujiwara's twin.

Nigo's career in the fashion industry started with Popeye Magazine as a writer and stylist — there, Nigo and Jun Takahashi wrote "Last Orgy 2" to carry Fujiwara and Takagi's legacy.

Working for Popeye Magazine gave Nigo the essential skills that helped him become the fashion designer he is today. Photography, editing, writing, and all editorial-related skills and experience were what inspired Nigo to start making clothes. In an interview, Nigo stated that he never studied fashion at the university and that it was thanks to his experience.

Nigo and Jun hopped from one magazine company to another, establishing their name as writers in the fashion landscape. It wasn't until 1993 that the duo decided to concentrate on making clothes, eventually opening their store NOWHERE, situated in the hidden back streets of Harajuku.

NOWHERE was split into two departments: Takashi's punk-influenced brand UNDERCOVER and Nigo's curated selection. Unfortunately, Nigo's business model didn't see much success until he created his brand, A Bathing Ape, inspired by the sci-fi film series Planet of the Apes.

For the first two years, Nigo released a limited supply of BAPE t-shirts with the help of graphic designer Shinichiro Nakamura who goes by the name Sk8thing. They would produce around 30 pieces and set aside half of the stock for their friends.

BAPE began to garner a cult following amongst the Japanese youth, with kids walking around Harajuku flexing their BAPE outfits. The small supply of BAPE's Ape head logo t-shirts and hoodies resulted in long lines outside the store, putting Nigo's brand in the spotlight of the Japanese fashion scene.

Towards the end of the '90s, BAPE's Ape head logo adorned a new duck camouflage look with small Ape heads merged into the pattern. Like today, BAPE's signature 1st CAMO was present on most of the apparel at the time, including jackets and short-sleeve shirts worn by rappers such as Notorious B.I.G. and actors like Robin Williams.

2002 saw BAPE reaching new heights, with six stores in Japan and 40 other retailers stocking a wide range of products. In addition, Nigo also secured a few now-iconic collaborations, including a camouflage box logo t-shirt with New York's famous clothing and skateboarding brand Supreme.

But that wasn't all. Nigo released the BAPESTA sneakers, a look-alike of Nike's classic Air Force 1 from 1982. He modified the silhouette by replacing the Swoosh logos with a shooting star motif, plus a few other minor tweaks. It didn't take long until the BAPESTA became acknowledged as the brand's signature trainers, arriving with different versions like patent leather, multi-colours, and even collaborations.

BAPE's name travelled all the way from Japan to the United States, thanks to the help of Pharrell Williams. Nigo and Pharrell decided to team up in 2003 to launch the streetwear label Billionaire Boys Club, centred on an astronaut's head as its logo and other motifs like diamonds and dollar signs.

Billionaire Boys Club was considered expensive compared to other streetwear brands back then, mainly because the pieces were manufactured and exported from Japan. On the contrary, this allowed streetwear to be acknowledged as luxury goods and not just low-cost apparel.

Nigo hitting milestones one after the other in his fashion career led to a good relationship with LVMH, a French luxury goods conglomerate that owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, plus more.

In 2004, Nigo and Pharrell joined forces with Louis Vuitton, led by Marc Jacobs at the time, to design a collection of sunglasses. The three-way collaboration saw the birth of the LV Millionaire Sunglasses, a $1,200 frame inspired by the Carrera 1001/S sunglasses.

Louis Vuitton's Million Sunglasses became an integral piece of the brand, keeping it at its forefront with a range of colourways. The late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, the founder of the luxury streetwear brand Off-White, even created a 1-of-1 version during his time as artistic director at the French fashion house in 2019.

BAPE opened its flagship stores in the U.S sometime in 2004, starting in SoHo, New York City, and then in Los Angeles a few years later.

Working closely with Masamichi Katayama, the founder of the architecture firm Wonderwall, Nigo's BAPE stores displayed their products as if they were museum pieces — in glass cages, rotating conveyor belts, or simply anything that broke the norm.

When Nigo wasn't busy working on BAPE, he spent his time with Teriyaki Boyz, a Japanese rap group. Their debut album by Def Jam Recordings featured many reputable music producers, including Daft Punk, who then went on to produce Teriyaki Boyz's first single: "HeartBreaker".

Through the years, Teriyaki Boyz collaborated with renowned rappers such as Jay-Z, Pharrell, Busta Rhymes, Big Sean, and even Kanye West. One of the J-group's popular tracks is The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift soundtrack, which remains recognisable today.

Of course, the members wore BAPE on live stages and in music videos, further pushing the streetwear label to new audiences.

Nigo's ventures in the fashion and music industries alike allowed him to expand his connections. In 2007, Nigo teamed up with Kanye West (founder of YEEZY) for a collaborative effort on the BAPESTA sneaker commemorating Kanye's debut album, "The College Dropout".

The Kanye West x A Bathing Ape BAPESTA "College Dropout" colourway featured a design mimicking the colours of the album cover, with brown and cream accents. The award-winning element was, of course, the iconic College Dropout bear mascot painted on the lateral heels.

The 2010s saw notable changes in fashion and Nigo's style was changing too. Alongside running BAPE, Nigo launched his Human Made clothing label inspired by the idea of an ape's evolution into a human being.

If BAPE were all about bold colours and eye-catching graphics, Human Made opted for a more mature concept.

2013 was the end of an era. BAPE became more accessible worldwide, meaning it was less exclusive, and the enormous hype surrounding the label slowly faded away. Thus, putting the brand in financial difficulties. Nigo was left with no choice but to sell 90% of BAPE to a Chinese fashion apparel company called the I.T Group in 2011.

In 2013, Nigo officially announced his departure from the brand to focus on Human Made and other projects.

Nigo's story after exiting BAPE was just as successful. In 2014, he became the first-ever creative director at Uniqlo's UT division, bringing the Japanese clothing apparel company new opportunities to the table, including collaborations with Star Wars, Peanuts, Line Friends, and even Kaws.

To this day, Nigo and Kaws collaborated three times, producing a range of high-quality graphic tees in various colourways depicting the emblematic KAWS figure.

It was no surprise that Nigo and Virgil Abloh duo would eventually come together due to their similar backgrounds in streetwear and music. In 2020, Virgil invited Nigo to work on Louis Vuitton's LV2 collection, allowing him to bring in some of his signature motifs from Human Made, notably hearts and animals.

At long last, Nigo's celebrated career leads up to KENZO in 2021, a French luxury brand founded in 1970 by the late Japanese designer Kenzo Takada. KENZO managed to stay at the forefront of fashion even after Takada's death, thanks to its Asian-inspired motifs applied to European fashion styles.

Nigo debuted his FW22 collection at KENZO in Paris in the early half of 2022, consisting of pieces marked with Japanese quince/Maule's quince flower known as the "Boke flower".

An accompanying NFT collection was also released, allowing holders to access exclusive KENZO customer perks.

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