Overview
TAAKK is a Tokyo label founded by Takuya Morikawa after an eight-year career at Issey Miyake Inc. Morikawa established Morikawa Design Studio in 2012 and introduced TAAKK commercially with the Spring/Summer 2013 collection. The early label grew through small-scale exhibitions and Japanese wholesale accounts while Morikawa developed a material-led practice rooted in original textile development; recognition including the Tokyo New Designer Fashion Grand Prix and the Tokyo Fashion Award helped move the brand from showroom presentations into a formal runway programme.
TAAKK staged its first Tokyo runway for Autumn/Winter 2017, appeared on the New York menswear calendar in 2018 and entered the Paris schedule after Morikawa received the Fashion Prize of Tokyo for the 2020 cycle. Paris subsequently became its principal presentation city, with temporary digital formats used during pandemic travel restrictions. In 2021 Morikawa reached the semi-final of the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, and Spring/Summer 2023 introduced TAAKK’s first formally described womenswear collection within the same seasonal mainline.
By 2026 TAAKK remained an independent, founder-led label based in Tokyo and presented on the Paris menswear calendar. Menswear and womenswear share the mainline, while TAAKK DENIM, bags and accessories extend the product range without forming separate labels. Morikawa continues to direct the collections, developing compact seasonal ranges through close work with specialist textile and craft producers.
Philosophy
TAAKK begins with material development. Morikawa’s years across PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE, me ISSEY MIYAKE and the main Issey Miyake collections trained him to treat cloth as an engineered structure, and his independent practice deepened that approach through direct work with Japanese mills and artisans. Fabrics are developed to alter how a familiar garment is read, often by changing fibre, weave, opacity or surface within the cloth itself.
The label’s recurring systems make that method visible. TAAKK DENIM uses jacquard weaving to encode whiskers, creases and fading patterns into the textile, sometimes followed by washing, bleaching or physical fraying. Gradient fabrics can move from cotton to wool, voile to tailoring cloth or wool to nylon across one continuous surface, allowing a shirt, jacket or bomber to change material identity without abandoning its underlying construction. Tailoring provides a stable framework for these transitions, keeping the technical shift legible on the body.
Recent collections have added sculptural embroidery and cutwork to this textile vocabulary, building relief from strips and layers of the garment fabric and allowing controlled irregularity to remain visible. Morikawa repeatedly starts from recognisable wardrobe forms—blazers, shirts, denim, military jackets and outerwear—and unsettles them through fabrication. The design language depends on close observation and technical change: ordinary silhouettes become the testing ground for textiles that behave in unexpected ways.
Timeline
Disclaimer
Creative timeline
Button TextTAAKK introduced jewellery developed with 4°C / 4°C HOMME+ for Autumn/Winter 2026, including rings and pendants based on raw-mineral forms. The partnership returned for Spring/Summer 2027, making it a recurring collection collaboration across two consecutive completed seasons.
The Spring/Summer 2023 collection, presented in Paris on 21 June 2022, introduced TAAKK’s first formally described womenswear collection within the existing mainline. Womenswear continued as a seasonal category in subsequent official archives without developing a separate label, calendar or creative leadership.
TAAKK was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2021 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers from an international field of applicants. The semi-final was conducted through a digital showroom in April 2021, placing Morikawa’s textile-led practice within the prize’s global emerging-designer cohort.
TAAKK presented in Paris for the first time with its Autumn/Winter 2020 collection in January 2020, using support from the Fashion Prize of Tokyo. Paris became the brand’s principal international presentation city, with later pandemic seasons temporarily delivered through digital and Tokyo-based formats.
Morikawa received the Fashion Prize of Tokyo for the 2020 cycle in October 2019. The programme supplied financial and logistical support for TAAKK’s move onto the Paris menswear schedule while the label remained independently operated by Morikawa’s studio.
TAAKK made its first verified international fashion-week calendar appearance in New York on 10 February 2018 with the Autumn/Winter 2018 collection. A second New York presentation followed that July through New York Men’s Day, extending the label’s international presentation strategy before its move to Paris.
TAAKK staged its first formal runway on 25 March 2017 at Shibuya Hikarie during Tokyo fashion week, presenting the Autumn/Winter 2017 collection. The show shifted the label from showroom and presentation formats into a public catwalk programme backed by the Tokyo Fashion Award.
TAAKK was selected for the Tokyo Fashion Award 2017 in late 2016, bringing institutional support to a label that had previously relied on exhibitions and wholesale presentations. The award led directly into the brand’s first formal Tokyo runway the following March.
For Autumn/Winter 2015, TAAKK introduced shirts and blousons in sizing intended to be wearable by women while remaining a menswear-led label. The OVERLAY collection was also shown in Taipei, adding an early overseas presentation before the brand’s later New York and Paris calendar phases.
TAAKK represented Japan at the Asia Fashion Federation conference in Bangkok in 2014, giving the young label an early international industry platform. The appearance preceded its later overseas collection presentations in Taipei, New York and Paris.
Morikawa received professional support through the Tokyo New Designer Fashion Grand Prix in 2013 during TAAKK’s first year of commercial activity. The recognition gave the young studio greater visibility and helped it establish early wholesale relationships in Japan.
TAAKK entered the market with its Spring/Summer 2013 collection, establishing Morikawa’s independent label after the formation of his studio the previous year. The first seasons were presented through small-scale exhibitions and wholesale activity in Japan.
With TAAKK’s first commercial season, Takuya Morikawa became the label’s continuing designer and principal creative authority. He has directed the brand’s collections from its early Tokyo wholesale years through its current Paris presentation programme.
Takuya Morikawa established Morikawa Design Studio in 2012 after leaving Issey Miyake Inc., creating the independent practice from which TAAKK emerged. The label made its commercial debut with the Spring/Summer 2013 collection.
TAAKK collaborations
TAAKK uses collaborations selectively, usually to extend a seasonal material or accessory idea without separating it from the main collection.
Jewellery and accessories
- 4°C / 4°C HOMME+
- Jewellery collaboration, 2026
- Rings and pendants developed from raw-mineral forms appeared with Autumn/Winter 2026 and returned for Spring/Summer 2027.
- MYKITA
- Eyewear collaboration, Spring/Summer 2025
- MYKITA supplied handmade statement eyewear for TAAKK’s Paris runway.
- yuhaku
- Belts, Spring/Summer 2027
- The Japanese leather brand developed belts for the collection, extending TAAKK’s material focus into accessories.
Retail project
- CS case study / Goodwood
- Cardigan capsule, 2024
- A single cardigan adapted the printed-mesh material developed for TAAKK Spring/Summer 2024 into a retail collaboration.
