R.I.P. Terrible month for fashion, indeed. Probably not many of you remember his clothes, and I only got a glimpse of it, but what I saw was great. He used to have a store on Fifth Ave downtown, near the Paul Smith store. In a way, him and Kenzo Takada paved the way for Yohji and Rei.
Mitsuhiro Matsuda Dies in Japan
May 28th, 2008 @ 6:54 PM
Mitsuhiro Matsuda, one of the half dozen most important Japanese fashion designers, has died in Japan aged 74 from liver cancer.
Known for his soft, yet structured, architectural sense of
clothing, Matsuda was a fashion forerunner whose unique, naturalistic
and earthy color sense influenced many other designers who followed
him.
Probably more than any other designer, Matsuda blazed a path in
sunglasses with his Japanese sensibility and high tech pop aesthetic.
His vintage shades remain cult collector items for connoisseurs of
sunglasses.
Matsuda died May 17 in his hometown of Tokyo after a long illness.
Samuel Beckett like, he was buried on May 20, before any announcement
of his death.
Matsuda, whose parents owned a company that made kimonos, was born
in Tokyo in 1934. An ambitious youth, he studied at Japan?s famed Bunka
school of fashion where his fellow classmates included Kenzo Takada and
Junko Koshino.
In the mid-eighties he was the architects? fashion designer,
admired for his sense of structured silhouette, suits memorable for
their arty nuances and crisp white shirts with unique façade detailing.
?I make clothes for people who dream, yet who want to look credible,? Matsuda once told the author of this obituary.
Perhaps his lack of English hemmed him back, and his commitment to
a particularly understated oeuvre prevented him from winning a larger
audience among the mass public, but he will be remembered as a
distinctive Eastern voice, who foretold the marriage of fashion and
architecture, which is so prevalent today.
In 1964, Matsuda and Kenzo journeyed to France together on a cargo
?cruise? ship, beginning a journey that would launch his career in the
West. He stayed just three years in Europe, before returning to Japan,
where he founded his own fashion company, Nicole Co. Ltd in 1967.
He continued to show his signature men?s collections in Europe
until a decade ago, winning plaudits for his classy vision of arty
chic.
Arguably his greatest clout and reach was with sunglasses, and his
vintage items are cult collectibles on ebay and ecommerce sites. In
1998, The New York Times even noted that the hip-hop idol Sean (Puffy)
Combs, now P. Diddy, rapped about Matsuda sunglasses in a video.
Deficit omne quod nasciture.
Comment