takeya

Takeya is the owner of Jugem, a deliciously cool fashion brand in Tokyo.

He seemed like one of those quiet artists, but that could also be the fact that he’s trying to communicate with me in English rather than his native Japanese. I seem to remember that he spent time in New York which allowed him to pick up enough English to get by well in conversations with people like me. I’d done my best to cram as many Japanese Duolingo lessons in as I could before this shoot. It turns out that you need to know more than how to say “Than you” and “I’ll have rice place”.

Regardless Takeya and his team made me feel so welcome. Spending time at their office and the surrounding area was the most fun and the reason I do photography. For 8 hours I was a super trendy fashion designer in Japan. It was the best 8 hours. Below is the text I wrote for the website that commissioned me. You can see the full story here.

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“One thing about Tokyo you learn pretty fast is that nothing is ever on street level. That exclusive shoe shop? Level 6 bro. The highly recommended, tik tok famous nail salon? It’s in the basement of the subway, just left past the escalators. 

Much like that, I found Jugem on level six of a neat and tidy building just outside of Roppongi. It’s a well to do area, full of international embassies and like all of Tokyo, obsessively clean. The Sakura cherry blossom hit yesterday and today is the first day the world has seen the class of 2024. It’s raining but for some reason in Tokyo that seems fitting.  

The lift doors open and I am faced with a simple office entrance with a single phone and near piles of delivery receipts. Through the glass I am spotted by three men who immediately rush to help me in. Bottles of ice cold water are brought to me, people bow. I try to bow the appropriate amount, I probably don’t nail it.  

One of the three men I meet is Takeya. Takeya is the founder of Jugem, a technical clothing brand made for city and travel use. I’m happy. His English is good. He can speak in full sentences which is fair amount more than I can do in Japanese. I can tell you who I am, and that I would like a water please. (Gabriel desu, Mizo kudasai) The other two men speak no English, so they wait for Takeya to interpret everything I say. The delayed laughs to my jokes are appreciated.  

After impressing them with my Duolingo streak, we decide to look through the latest Jugem collection. It becomes clear that fabrics and texture play a key role. The smooth rip stop fabric with seamless joins are a nice touch. The colour palette is dark and thoughtful. A subdued set of blues, purples and stones. They probably have very cool technical names, and they all make me want to touch them. We photograph each piece, we talk about their use cases. It becomes clear I’m getting a lesson in clothing for which I have not done my homework. So I hide behind my camera and listen. 

We decide to put these city clothes to the test. Out we go into the aforementioned rain. Across bridges, through parks, into private car parks, the clothes work. They blend into the surroundings while also clearly being a statement to the world that Jugem is a brand that can and stand out while blending in. They also keep our model dry which is a bonus. Thankfully I have a Takeya holding an umbrella, so I don’t require technical expertise of Jugem. 

We finish our time together in a Lawson. It’s one of the three big Konbini brands here. Takeya knows the staff due to working above them for the last few years. He shows me some of the highlights of Japanese convenience store food, which is as good as most restaurant food in the rest of the world.  

It’s getting dark, so I need to leave. I’ve learnt a lot about Japanese style, how to say something is “tasty” properly in Japanese as a man (It’s not “Oishii” not matter what DuoLingo says) and the fact that I love egg salad sandwiches. 

I join the masses of commuters in their Japanese work uniforms (dark suit, no tie, beige overcoat) walking through a local park beneath the blossom. It feels a bit on the nose, but I play Daft Punk’s “Veridis Quo” and lean into the cliché of a rainy Tokyo evening.’

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