Tomo Koizumi, the Japanese designer behind fashion’s buzziest kaleidoscopic gowns, found fame abroad, but now he’s taking time to discover his roots
In kindergarten, Tomo Koizumi would bring a backpack filled with origami paper to class, determined to become a teacher of the ancient art of Japanese paper folding. But he soon realised that it wasn’t so much the paper he loved as simply the act of collecting a full spectrum of colours.
Nearly three decades later, Koizumi, 32, still loves hoarding hues, but now uses polyester fabrics that come in 170 colours to build majestic, sartorial sculptures that look like bouquets of blooming hydrangeas for stage performers around the world. Lady Gaga, Japanese girl group Perfume and Hong Kong pop star Miriam Yeung are just a few who have flaunted his frothy creations on stage. “In Japan, there aren’t really occasions to wear big dresses, so I became a costume designer to make these pieces for singers,” he says.
Despite his loud, sometimes larger-than-life creations, Koizumi is humble and shy as we speak over Zoom. Sporting a plain grey T-shirt that recedes into the sofabed he’s reclining on, Koizumi is in his boyfriend’s London flat, taking an extended layover on his way back to Tokyo, where he’s based, after presenting his first collaboration with Emilio Pucci at Milan Fashion Week in September.
“As a costume designer, you often have to get fabric last minute, which is why I chose a very common Japanese polyester organza material that can be found everywhere in Tokyo early in my career and I’ve used it ever since,” he says. “I also liked to use deadstock, so there are many colours to choose from, but it is inconsistent in quantity, so I’d be forced to mix and match, which is why my dresses became very colourful.”
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Rise To Fame
If his towering, topiary-esque gowns remind you of those by flamboyant couturiers of the Nineties, that’s because John Galliano’s work for Christian Dior, which Koizumi discovered while skimming through magazines at the age of 14, was what inspired his career in fashion. “The images were really shocking; that moment changed my life,” he says. “For a while I desperately wanted to be [Galliano’s] assistant but I couldn’t afford to study abroad, so just stayed in Japan and majored in fine art.” But the National Chiba University graduate never felt like he could fit into the household Japanese labels. “Issey Miyake’s work for me felt too intelligent, almost like science. A lot of Japanese designers are like that, but I’m not,” he explains. “And obviously I love Comme des Garçons but they’re too big; I didn’t think I could ever work for them because I didn’t study fashion.”
Costume design was what Koizumi eventually turned to, but not before he explored the idea of fashion photography or styling. “I just wanted to express something spontaneous and eye-catching, something that can express beauty without words, that’s easy to understand and feel,” he says. There’s no doubt his fanciful designs, like perfectly whipped buttercream wedding cakes, tug at the heartstrings of every hopeless romantic. “That’s why I love Galliano. It’s about making that moment—I’m always chasing that moment.”
His moment came in 2019 after renowned British stylist Katie Grand stumbled upon his designs on Instagram and decided to orchestrate his debut at New York Fashion Week that season. Grand assembled an all-star team—Pat McGrath created the make-up looks, Tabitha Simmons designed the Mary Jane shoes and Marc Jacobs offered up his Madison Avenue store as the venue. Models and actresses including Bella Hadid, Joan Smalls and Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie spilled over the silver stairs in a rainbow cascade, landing Koizumi on the cover of several fashion newspapers the next day.
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