Nakaaki, creative director of AKIRA NAKA, studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. His approach to creating clothes isn't just about superficial beauty; it's about bringing out the inner beauty of each individual. He calls knitwear "tangible couture," and he pours his heart and soul into it. This interview explores AKIRA NAKA's "past and future" with the art form of "knitwear," a craft that can be described as artisanal, on the horizontal axis, and Nakaaki's own thoughts and feelings about fashion on the vertical axis. As mentioned above, Nakaaki studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, a school that has launched many famous designers. Living and breathing the school and the area sparked his passion for knitwear.

"In Antwerp, knitwear is a natural part of everyday life. A lot of people have knitting as a hobby, and there are several yarn shops throughout the city. There are a wide variety of yarns, and in the back of the shops, women knit as if it were a club activity."

For example, gradation knitwear is one of Akira Naka's early and representative works. This expresses the way the knitted fabric melts and disappears into the woven fabric.

"There was a time when I admired European, baroque aesthetics. However, I felt that there were limits to this in making clothes that are firmly rooted in reality. I wondered what could surpass this aesthetic, and came up with the idea of the material 'gradually melting and disappearing.' This cannot be done by machine. The knitting is gradually made thinner so that it blends with the fibers of the fabric, but with machine, horizontal lines inevitably appear. It could only be done by hand."

Many well-known brands hand-knit a "prototype" before commencing mass production by machine. In other words, they make a sample before outsourcing to a factory. However, the more mass-produced something is by machine, the more difficult it becomes to control quality. Naka says, "The power that resides in hand-knitted items cannot be compared to that of machine-made items."



"Machines have their merits. On top of that, if machines are like paintings, hand-knitted items feel like sculptures. The grain is different, and the ribbing is completely different. I really wanted to incorporate the charm of hand-knitted items into my brand. So when I returned to Japan, I searched for a reliable hand-knitted manufacturer, but it was difficult to find one... I also tried to find knitting classes one by one, but they told me that while it's possible to make one item, it's extremely difficult to create two or three identical items..."


It was a fateful encounter. Hayakawa looks back on the situation at the time as follows:



"He called me out of the blue and said, 'There's a knitwear item he really wants to make, and I'd like to meet with him to explain it to him.' I myself have a strong desire to support young, talented designers. I honestly felt that I wanted to help him 'take the world by using knitwear as a unique material for his brand.' He had just returned from overseas and didn't have a particularly impressive background, but his desire to create great knitwear was evident in every word he spoke. We hit it off."






"Naka's ideas for knitwear are completely new, and she conveys her image without any regard for conventional knitwear conventions. But it's actually quite fun to put it all together. In other words, it goes a little beyond the realm of "knitting." It's fun to take on challenges like, 'Can I combine this pattern with this pattern?'"

Then the two began working together to explore new possibilities in knitwear.

--Continued in Part 2.