Fashion Designers

The son of a metal fabricator and a nurse and born in Maebashi in 1970, Nagao Tomoaki is better known to the world as Nigo. Fashion designer, DJ, record producer and entrepreneur, he is best known as the creator of the urban clothing line A Bathing Ape. He is also the DJ of the Japanese hip hop group Teriyaki Boyz.

A student of the Bunka Fashion College, Nigo claims his real education happened in Tokyo's nightclubs. A fan of hip hop, the wannabe-DJ began dressing like the icons he found on record sleeves: Public Enemy, LL Cool J and The Beastie Boys. He founded Nowhere, Co. in 1993 and started out with a niche fashion boutique selling a variety of imported streetwear brands and shoes by Adidas and Nike, which became very trendy among teenagers.

The success of the iconic A Bathing Ape brand was based largely on scarcity - production was always a fraction of demand and long lines would form outside the store when new T-shirts and camouflage print hoodies were released. The brand's street cred saw sales expand to dozens of stores across Japan, but Nigo scaled everything back to just one flagship store in 1998 without seeing a drop in overall sales.

In 2002, Nigo released the Bapesta sneaker, which British TV presenter and Japanophile Jonathan Ross described as "the epitome of collectable footwear." In 2005, Nigo partnered with Pharrell Williams to create and launch the streetwear brands Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream footwear. This was followed by support from a host of other rappers like Kanye West and Lil Wayne, positioning the brand at the very peak of hip-hop style. It was around this time that Nigo started producing tracks and DJing with Japanese rap group Teriyaki Boyz.

The company's fortunes took a turn for the worse in 2011, with Nigo forced to sell off 90% of the BAPE brand to a Hong Kong buyer. In 2014, he became the creative director for Uniqlo's UT brand and his new brand Human Made, which focuses on high-quality vintage reproductions.