Hideshi Maruya

Hideshi Maruya is a Japanese fashion designer and the founding Chief Designer associated with the first major phase of 5351 POUR LES HOMMES. Before taking charge of 5351, he studied menswear and worked within ABAHOUSE INTERNATIONAL's planning structure, developing the technical and commercial experience that would shape the company's new high-end menswear project.

Maruya gave 5351 its early identity through narrow tailoring, heavily treated leather and a dark rock-oriented image. Under his leadership the brand expanded quickly: 5351 POUR LES FEMMES followed in 1994, the combined HOMMES ET LES FEMMES identity entered the Tokyo Collection in 1995, and Paris Prêt-à-Porter activity began in 1997. These moves positioned an internally owned ABAHOUSE label with the presentation ambitions of an independent designer house.

His work established the material vocabulary that outlived his tenure. Leather processing, garment dyeing, slim proportions, hard-edged outerwear and formal tailoring were used to create clothing that felt polished and abrasive at the same time. The early runway strategy amplified those codes, making 5351 one of ABAHOUSE's most visible prestige labels during the 1990s.

Maruya left ABAHOUSE in 2000 and subsequently founded SHELLAC, seeking greater control over design and production. His departure therefore ended his direct relationship with 5351, but not the design system he had established. ABAHOUSE promoted Kazuhisa Komura from within the company, preserving the label's central silhouette and material language through the succession.

Maruya should be understood as 5351's founding aesthetic architect and first principal designer, not as the corporate founder or owner of the brand. The label was created and financed inside ABAHOUSE INTERNATIONAL; his authorship lay in defining its fashion identity and carrying that identity through its first Tokyo and Paris expansion.

Maruya's 5351 work treated menswear as a meeting point between tailoring and physical wear. A jacket could retain a precise lapel, shaped waist and formal sleeve construction while the fabric or leather was washed, shrunk, dyed or distressed. This allowed the clothes to read as controlled from a distance and more volatile at close range.

Rock culture supplied attitude without turning the collection into costume. Slim proportions, black palettes, leather and fitted outerwear created a recognisable image, but the lasting value of the work came from how those references were translated into repeatable ready-to-wear construction. The clothes were designed to be worn as adult menswear, not only photographed as subcultural styling.

Material experiment was therefore inseparable from silhouette. Surface treatment made familiar garments appear aged, compressed or hardened, while tailoring kept the body line exact. The tension between those two systems became one of 5351's most durable codes and remained visible under later designers.

Maruya's later decision to establish SHELLAC also clarifies his 5351 approach: he valued close control of material, fit and production. At 5351 those instincts were developed inside a corporate structure; after 2000 they became the basis for an independent label of his own.