Shinya Kozuka

Shinya Kozuka is a Japanese fashion designer and the founder of SHINYAKOZUKA. Raised in Osaka, he studied fashion at a vocational school in Tokyo before moving to London, where he completed the BA Menswear course at Central Saint Martins in 2013. His graduate work drew on occupational dress and the austere portraiture of Irving Penn’s Small Trades, establishing an interest in workwear, proportion and the dignity of ordinary clothing.

Kozuka returned to Japan after graduation and launched SHINYAKOZUKA in Tokyo in 2015. He initially handled both design and business operations, developing early collections through Japanese textile regions, dyeing workshops and independent factories. Shimpei Kajiura’s formal arrival in 2017 created a durable division of labour that allowed Kozuka to concentrate on collection narratives, drawings and garment design.

From 2021, Kozuka reorganised the brand’s seasonal output as numbered Issues presented through physical runway environments. His work moved from Tokyo sites to a Pitti Uomo special event in Florence and a Milan runway in 2026, while remaining anchored in the Tokyo studio and its domestic production network. He continues as the principal author of SHINYAKOZUKA’s collections.

Kozuka begins collections with a story, drawing or painting rather than a conventional image board. He calls the governing idea “Picturesque Scenery”, using remembered streets, imperfect vision and minor incidents as material for an imagined environment. The recurring language of blur, vague, unclear and hidden gives the work its preference for atmosphere and partial recognition over literal reference.

His garments enlarge work jackets, shirts, aprons and trousers until their familiar function becomes unstable. The Baggy trouser is the clearest expression of this method: deep pleats and wide legs organise rigid denim, canvas, wool or industrial twill into architectural volume. Hand painting, garment dyeing, surface abrasion and deliberately irregular textiles introduce variation into those controlled shapes.

Runways operate as extensions of the same drawing practice. Kozuka has placed collections in outdoor sports grounds, rain, monumental interiors and constructed landscapes, treating models as moving figures inside a picture book. The theatrical settings do not replace product discipline; recurring silhouettes, ORDINARY LIFE garments and precisely scoped collaborations form a continuous wardrobe beneath the seasonal narratives.