Introduction
Takuya Morikawa is a Japanese fashion designer born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1982 and raised in Akita. He studied apparel design at Bunka Fashion College, graduating in 2003, and joined Issey Miyake Inc. immediately afterwards. During an eight-year tenure he worked across PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE and me ISSEY MIYAKE, contributed to the 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT project “XXIc – 21st Century Man”, and later moved into planning and design for the main Issey Miyake women’s and menswear collections shown in Paris.
Morikawa left Issey Miyake to establish Morikawa Design Studio in 2012, launching TAAKK commercially with the Spring/Summer 2013 collection. The label developed from a small independent wholesale project into a runway brand through Japanese institutional support and a sequence of international presentations: its first Tokyo runway arrived in 2017, New York followed in 2018, and the Fashion Prize of Tokyo enabled a Paris debut in 2020. Morikawa was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2021 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers.
He remains TAAKK’s founder and principal designer. Under his direction the label has maintained a Paris menswear-calendar presence while widening the mainline to include womenswear from Spring/Summer 2023. His career is defined by sustained textile research, from the industrial processing systems encountered at Issey Miyake to original fabrics developed with specialist Japanese mills and artisans for TAAKK.
Design ethos
Morikawa approaches fashion through the construction of the material itself. His early exposure to garment making came through his mother’s knitwear work, while his Issey Miyake career placed him inside systems where pleating, heat treatment and engineered cloth determine the final shape of a garment. TAAKK carries that discipline into a smaller independent studio model, with Morikawa working directly with textile specialists and treating fibre, weave and finishing as part of the design process from the outset.
His best-known techniques use optical familiarity as a starting point. TAAKK DENIM converts observed fading, whiskers and creases into jacquard structure before selected garments receive further washing, bleaching or fraying. Other fabrics change composition across a continuous surface—cotton into wool, voile into tailoring cloth, wool into nylon—so that a single piece can move between shirt, blazer, bomber or military references. The silhouette remains readable while the textile alters its category and weight.
Morikawa’s recent work has pushed this method into dimensional embroidery, leather and cutwork, often retaining irregularities left by the hand and the resistance of the material. Tailoring, denim and utilitarian outerwear recur because they give those experiments a familiar frame. The result is a design practice in which technical development is not hidden behind styling: the fabric’s transformation becomes the visual argument of the garment.
Disclaimer
Career history
2026
TAAKK 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.
2022
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.
2021
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.
2020
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.
2019
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.
2018
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.
2017
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.
2016
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.
2015
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.
2014
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.
2013
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.
2013
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.
2013
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.
2012
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.
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