Facetasm

Having been an established brand in their home country for a decade, Japanese streetwear label Facetasm (pronounced FASS-e-TA-zum) recently brought their celebrated designs to the rest of the world with their debut showing in Paris. The timing couldn’t have been better - designer Hiromichi Ochiai was recently shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2016, and it’s easy to see why. Describing his design approach as “freestyle”, Ochiai eschews trends and distinct themes, opting instead for a multifaceted aesthetic that thrives on eclecticism, unexpected layering, and experimentalism. As Ochiai himself says, “The label’s ‘look’ is hard to describe. I never design with a person in mind, but sometimes I create a character in a story.” For Fall Winter 17 Hiromichi Ochiai, Facetasm’s designer, subverts traditional athletic wear by combining multiple block numbers and fabric swatches on a football jersey, creating a collage like effect. Next, the graphics on the printed tees are referential to both traditional renaissance style art (source coming) and punk lifestyles. The punk is seen most prominently on the Black Flag tee-shirt, which features a distorted image of a poster for a 1980 concert Black Flag put on in Redondo Beach, California. Ochiai has proven once again that he is truly many sided in his approach to design, and is fearless is his execution.