Nicola’s Tokyo

Nicola Formichetti did the art direction for Diesel’s 30-year anniversary show in Tokyo, and that’s the kind of gig that makes sense for him. His mother was a Japanese flight attendant, his father an Italian pilot - the kind of background that gives you claim to two places at once. He got discovered by Katy England, who gave him a column at Dazed & Confused when he was just starting out, which is basically the story of him existing at the intersection of underground and mainstream fashion without ever seeing those as separate things.

The show was this blend of intimate and elaborate - an exhibition, a party afterward, models, Tokyo’s nightlife scene, the whole apparatus but lighter somehow, less forced. Nicola talks about Japan as central to his creative process the way some people talk about their home, because it kind of is.

The models were actually compelling. Sara Cummings is one of those people who moves through fashion on her own terms without needing to announce it - you just watch her and understand the entire underground model conversation. Kiko Mizuhara is one of those faces that works in film and fashion simultaneously, which doesn’t happen often. Even Rola, who doesn’t exist in Western consciousness but has this kind of presence in Japan that doesn’t translate because it doesn’t need to.

It was just people making something beautiful in a city that actually cares about that work. The whole thing happened and then everyone went home. Nothing else. Just the thing itself, no message attached.