ISAMU KATAYAMA BACKLASH

HEROES — Portraits by HIRO KIMURA ran in Daikanyama from 23 to 28 July 2024 around the Yohji Yamamoto POUR HOMME × BACKLASH collaboration. Kimura’s portraits extended the fashion project into a dedicated exhibition, accompanied by an opening-day after-event at SPACE ODD.

The nine-style 2024SS Yohji Yamamoto POUR HOMME × ISAMU KATAYAMA BACKLASH project renewed the collaboration through a clear division of craft. Yohji Yamamoto supplied the pattern and silhouette language, BACKLASH handled the leather production, and Katayama styled the accompanying photo book.

BACKLASH Inc. opened BACKLASH OSAKA in Kitahorie on 25 August 2023 after a reception two days earlier. The store gave the company a second direct exhibition point and established the Tokyo–Osaka rhythm used for subsequent seasonal order events.

BACKLASH introduced THE DENIM with the 2023 2nd Collection in November 2022. The denim-specialist line then became a recurring part of the 2nd programme and remains present in the house’s current product structure.

BACKLASH staged the 2021 2nd Collection order exhibition on 5–6 December 2020. The intermediate programme became a recurring part of the calendar and later provided a regular setting for The Line, THE DENIM and specialist collaboration capsules.

BACKLASH NIGHT II DECADES celebrated the label’s twentieth anniversary at Ebisu The Garden Hall on 24 October 2019. Archival and new garments appeared together in the brand’s first domestic runway, turning two decades of leather work into a live retrospective.

The Autumn/Winter 2019 project with The Viridi-anne brought BACKLASH leather processing into a technical, anatomically cut menswear system. It arrived during a period of expanding collaboration immediately before the brand’s twentieth-anniversary runway.

BACKLASH launched its Yohji Yamamoto collaboration in October 2018 as part of the twentieth-anniversary period. The relationship continued through seasonal collections, Yohji Yamamoto POUR HOMME projects, accessories and special releases under the XX Yohji Yamamoto name.

Ballet by. BACKLASH formed part of the Spring/Summer 2019 order-exhibition programme as a dedicated womenswear line. The name later disappeared from the house’s active collection structure, leaving Spring/Summer 2019 as a clear surviving point in its history.

BACKLASH presented Autumn/Winter 2014–15 at Kogan Gallery in Paris on 19 January 2014. The gallery setting continued the international exhibition model that had framed the label’s European seasonal activity since its 2004 debut.

The 2012 mastermind JAPAN collaboration placed BACKLASH leather work within Japan’s high-end dark streetwear scene. It broadened the cultural setting for Katayama’s material practice during a mature phase of the brand’s development.

Koichi Makino’s ISAMU KATAYAMA = ARTISANAL LIFE was completed and released in 2009 after an extended production period. The film gave Katayama’s workshop culture and leather methods a sustained public portrait outside the seasonal collection cycle.

Keita Ogawa joined BACKLASH Inc. in 2004 and participated in leather development with Japanese and international tanneries. He left in 2009 to found incarnation, carrying that technical experience into an independent Florence-based practice.

In spring 2004 BACKLASH began presenting collections to international buyers in Milan and Paris. The exhibitions added European wholesale to a business previously built through Japanese select shops and established the overseas presentation model used through much of the following decade.

Katayama has directed ISAMU KATAYAMA BACKLASH from its foundation through its current collection system. His authorship links the early garment-dyed leather practice to The Line, THE DENIM and the long-running Yohji Yamamoto programme.

Isamu Katayama founded BACKLASH Inc. and ISAMU KATAYAMA BACKLASH in Tokyo in 1999. His years in bag manufacturing supplied the technical foundation for an independent fashion practice centred on leather construction and processing.