Loro Piana’s knitwear is made from the world's highest quality of raw materials. Its quality attracts celebrities and executives from around the world. Loro Piana announced it first global collab with Hiroshi Fujiwara, the founder of Fragment Design. The genderless capsule collection incorporates Fujiwara's roots in punk and is filled with creations that overturn the common sense of classic outfits. This first collection under the name Hiroshi Fujiwara will not include thunderbolt marks. We sat down with Hiroshi Fujiwara to talk about his production with Loro Piana.

Loro Piana featuring Hiroshi Fujiwara: Digging into the whole story with Hiroshi Fujiwara

– What is your image of Loro Piana?

I've only bought their knits before, which I have five or six gray ones of. I heard that their knitwear was good, and of course, I knew about their fine cashmere. But in fact, their cotton knitwear was also very nice. I had a hard time finding thick cotton knitwear, but they had it as a regular item, so I often went to their store on Keyakizaka Dori in Roppongi. Loro Piana’s cotton knits are chunky and loosely woven, which is nice.

– This is apparently Loro Piana’s first-ever collaboration. When did the project kick off?

I think they contacted me about a year ago. At first, we were mainly talking about knitwear, so we were planning to design knitwear in general, but we ended up doing shoes as well. I didn’t expect that to happen (laughs).For the shoes, we made some changes based on Loro Piana’s standard shoe style, but since they are an Italian brand, the shape of the sole and toe of their shoes has a very Italian look. We made the toes round and fuller like the ones we wear.

– You actually put some holes in them. That was so iconic. Adding holes to Loro Piana's knitwear is quite punk.

At first, I was exploring how far I could go and asked half-jokingly if I could put holes in the pieces, to which they answered, “possibly,” and everything went very quickly from there. I'm sure many sweaters with holes exist, but I feel there was a significant meaning to Loro Piana allowing me to make such items at this time.

– Loro Piana must have been surprised to see a closeup shot of a vicuna on the T-shirts?

You may be right. We used a picture from a photo book. Vicunas are rare animals. They are listed as endangered species, and Loro Piana has a reserve to keep and preserve them. Knitwear made of vicuna wool costs about 2 million yen, and coats cost about 7 million yen. The material is too expensive to use for knitwear, so I used photos instead (laughs).

– Your works don’t usually include patterns, so what inspired you to create the chain motifs?

It’s based on the JAL “happi” jackets that the Beatles wore when they came to Japan. It was a motif that I wanted to use someday. I’m not particularly a fan of the Beatles or JAL, but the related photos left a big impression on me. It was so unforgettable that I even bought a replica of one at an auction. But its traditional Japanese pattern was tricky for me to use. When it came to doing the collab this time, I thought this pattern might match well with Italy. Also, I thought that knitting it into a sweater rather than printing it would give it a more Italian-ish look.

– You also have the reversible jacket you sell in your uniform experiment’s regular lineup

Yes. It is the high-end version of the reversible jacket we sell every year. Most of the other items are made in Italy, but only this one is made in Japan. I used a fabric by Loro Piana. Overseas brands have global sales channels, but most items by domestic brands never leave Japan, so people living overseas who might like them don’t get a chance to see such items. I wanted people living outside Japan to see what we do at uniform experiment with a taste of Loro Piana.

Loro Piana never said “no,” and the reason we didn’t use fragment’s icon thunderbolts

– Tell us about the production process

I found it relatively easy to work since they said we could do all the designing here in Japan. Loro Piana sent us the materials, so I would chat with my workmates here in Japan while working on the samples, asking questions like "I wonder how much this fabric costs per meter?" Once satisfied with what we made, we sent them back to Loro Piana's team in Italy. They responded by asking us if it was okay since we used all the fabric inside out. Only then did we realize that they considered the fabric as inside out in Italy. However, we told them it was okay to leave it as is, and they made it as it was. That turned out to be good for me. That is also the reason why you can see the seams in many of the items.

- Normally, they would have asked you to use the fabric so that the seams didn’t show on the outside.

Right. For example, luxury brands have their own unique shapes. Some brands have a specific shape they want to use from the beginning, while others may change the design we provide based on the shape of their brand. But Loro Piana didn’t turn down many of our proposals. They recreated what I wanted to make not only in how I wanted to use the fabric, but also in the shape and details.

- You also changed the logo of the capsule collection?

Right. I asked if we could change their original logo as well, and they said yes. They let us do whatever we wanted to do (laughs).The original logo features a beautiful cursive font, so I wanted to use something entirely different. I thought cut-ups wouldn't fit this time, so I asked Yoichiro Uchida to create some graffiti-like logos, and I chose one from them for the capsule collection.

– Which is why the thunderbolt logo doesn’t appear. This is your first collection done under the name Hiroshi Fujiwara.

Actually, they made the offer (to let the collection be under my name). I do collabs with other brands, so they may have thought I would accept this offer if it were under my name. Because of trademark issues, we’ve used “FRGMT” in recent collabs with Moncler, so I didn’t notice until someone told me.

- Does anything change between offers under the name Hiroshi Fujiwara and Fragment?

There’s no difference. If I can make what I want, I’m fine with it being Fragment or Hiroshi Fujiwara, or even neither. More brands are wanting to have their logo used, but I was never explicitly told by Loro Piana to include it, so I could design without having to think about it, and I was pretty happy about that. I've designed both graphics and plain items in the past, so I'm just happy to work on something without depending on the logo's design. I think it's more important that the item is recognized as it is, rather than by its logo or brand name. I'd be happier if someone happens to like and buy something and know that it's designed by me afterward.

- The announcement and release of the collection are simultaneous.

We did it like Apple - beginning sales the day after the press release. The schedule was pushed back a bit due to the pandemic this time, but I’m happy it ended up in this way. It's good for us creators that there is no time lag. We usually have to show the collection on the runway, set up promotions, and then they are available for purchase. Creators’ passion won’t wane if they can keep things under wraps until right before the release. It would normally take half a year after a wearable sample arrives before I can share it publicly, and by then, I’ve already started focusing on the next season's collection. This time, I immediately shared the sample on Instagram after it arrived, and I’d love to keep sharing with that amount of excitement.

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A post shared by Hiroshi Fujiwara (@fujiwarahiroshi)

– Finally, which item do you like the best?

I’d like to reiterate how nice the knitwear was. I wanted to wear it as soon as it arrived, but it was still too hot then. We shirred the Loro Piana-quality denim pants, and there are plenty of other details we meticulously designed. I'm sure you'll be happy and impressed with our work.

▶ ︎ Loro Piana featuring Hiroshi Fujiwara 10 items pick

■Loro Piana featuring Hiroshi Fujiwara