Essentials: MIYAGIHIDETAKA Director Hideki Miyagi | HYPEBEAST

Japanese designer Miyagi Hidetaka, who loves American vintage culture, has a large collection of medieval items such as Bandana, flannel shirts, Indian silver jewelry, Levi’s denim clothing, and these elements are also reflected in his designs. render. The shoe brand mythography, founded in 2012, is good at reshaping the structure of vintage materials into unrestrained shoes. In a mythography shoot, Hideki Miyagi disassembled and spliced ​​Bandana into a shirt to match the shoe. He never thought that this “Willow of Intentions” would get a lot of attention, so he took this as an opportunity to cross the border from shoes to clothing.

Officially launched in 2018, MIYAGIHIDETAKA, the clothing brand of the same name, has created a series of popular items such as shirts and down jackets around the medieval Bandana with paisley pattern. With this signature element, it has launched joint cooperation with brands such as PEACEMINUSONE and NEEDLES. The operation mode of not holding exhibitions, wholesale, and selling products from time to time also casts a layer of mystery for the brand. This time, HYPEBEAST invited Hideki Miyagi to share with you his personal must-have items, behind-the-scenes design stories, and his masterpieces with the most brand DNA in his mind, and announced the new project “Rafu” that surfaced recently.

personal essentials

Ginkaku-Ji Incense

Hideki Miyagi:This is one of my favorite incense sticks from Ginkakuji Temple in Kyoto, the same one we use in the store. Incense is a very necessary object for me when thinking, designing, and reading.

Vintage Elephant Brand Bandana

Hideki Miyagi:I’ve been collecting Bandana squares, especially the paisley styles. Among them, the medieval Bandana produced by Elephant Brand is a precious and famous product.

EYEVAN7285/Oliver Peoples Sunglasses

Hideki Miyagi:I am drawn to figurative objects, and glasses are one of them. I love black-rimmed glasses with a three-dimensional feel and a nice curve, which has become a signature element in my look.

Vintage Flannel Shirts

Hideki Miyagi:Besides Bandana, I have also been collecting vintage flannel shirts. Whether for self-wear or for creative use, this piece is a must in my life.

Navajo Jewelry

Hideki Miyagi:Like glasses, jewelry is one of my obsessions with figurative objects. Navajo jewelry in Indian culture has a rich history and meaning, but I’m more obsessed with its beauty in form.

Work Boots

Hideki Miyagi:These work boots have been with me for many years, and I bought them in my early twenties. I was just starting to learn shoemaking and was so attracted to the boot’s Goodyear-Welted construction last that I bought it and customised it with a Vibram sole.

Create behind-the-scenes stories

HYPEBEAST: First of all, can you introduce yourself and the brand to our readers?

Hideki Miyagi:I have been working in shoe stores since I was nineteen. After this experience, I started my own shoe brand mythography at the age of twenty-eight. Then in 2018, I started MIYAGIHIDETAKA. The idea of ​​this brand is to occasionally limit the products that I want to wear or make. This year, in 2022, we will launch a new brand “Rafu”.

HYPEBEAST: Before MIYAGIHIDETAKA, you were better known as the manager of the shoe brand mythography. Why did you choose to cross the border from shoes to clothing?

Hideki Miyagi:This is a natural development process. Since my fashion career started with shoes, the creation of “mythography” has inevitably involved the matching of clothing styles. Gradually, I became more and more interested in clothing, even more than shoe design, so I Founded MIYAGIHIDETAKA.

HYPEBEAST: Mythography was last updated in 2018, is it closed now?

Hideki Miyagi:I don’t mean to stop mythography, I just want to focus on MIYAGIHIDETAKA for now. The concepts of the two brands are different, so we can’t do both at the same time. If we have the opportunity to make shoes, of course it will be made under the name of mythography… but it is not clear yet.

HYPEBEAST: “Bandana” should be the most impressive element of MIYAGIHIDETAKA at present. Why did you choose to design around it in the first place? What is the production process behind it?

Hideki Miyagi:Bandana kerchiefs have been my everyday item since I was young. I’ve been collecting vintage Bandana for a long time, which is why the Bandana patchwork is often featured in mythography shoes. At the time, I had also handcrafted Bandana patchwork shirts for mythography visual shoots, and the response was so good that I decided to open a dedicated collection in MIYAGIHIDETAKA.

In fact, I didn’t know anything about clothing at the time. When I was thinking about how to make clothes, I came up with the idea of ​​sewing Bandana directly to the other most familiar item – a flannel shirt. We are collecting vintage Bandanas year-round, which is a very time-consuming process because the Bandanas used are from my own collection, with patterns that I personally select. This pattern has been maintained since the beginning of the brand because it is a very important process for the making of these shirts.

HYPEBEAST: You just mentioned your Bandana collection, so what details do you pay attention to when picking? Where do you usually buy it?

Hideki Miyagi:When I pick Bandana, I pay special attention to the paisley pattern. Bandana has a lot of patterns, so it took a while to pick what I wanted. We generally search through vintage clothing stores or dealers.

HYPEBEAST: The release time of MIYAGIHIDETAKA is uncertain, including the store where we filmed, which is also open for a limited time until 2023. Why did you choose such a casual operation method? Compared with traditional brand operation, what are the pros and cons of this model in your opinion?

Hideki Miyagi:Mythography experience has greatly influenced my current style. I want to create a new model that is different from traditional brand operation. So, I decided not to do exhibitions or wholesale, to release what I wanted to wear and what I wanted to do seasonally. As for the benefits, in a season-sensitive economy like clothing, I think this model will make brands more attractive.

HYPEBEAST: Working at the shoe store alfredoBANNISTER was the starting point of your career, was it also in charge of shoe design? How did this experience influence your subsequent career?

Hideki Miyagi:I wasn’t a designer at the time, but I was drawing designs every day. Working in the store, there are many opportunities to meet the designer, and I was very inspired by the communication with him. For example, “what is a designer” and “what is the most important thing for a designer”, I have learned a lot from him.

HYPEBEAST: Your style of dressing is very distinct and reflected in your designs. Can you share your inspiration and the pieces that inspire you the most?

Hideki Miyagi:I was inspired by the fashion trends I experienced firsthand in my teenage to twenties, influenced by the brands around me and the brands I wore at the time, such as NEPENTHES and Number (N)ine. The most fascinating of these is vintage, I especially love and collect Navajo jewelry, vintage denim, vintage Bandana, and flannel shirts. These items are the origin of MIYAGIHIDETAKA and Rafu.

HYPEBEAST: So what kind of brand will your new project “Rafu” be?

Hideki Miyagi:Rafu is a brand specializing in flannel fabrics with original patterns, including shirts, pants and robes. The brand was created with the hope that people would wear flannel shirts more casually and everyday. At the same time, we hope that this brand will be supported by a wider range of customers than MIYAGIHIDETAKA, so we choose traditional brand operations, such as exhibition and wholesale.

Brand representative works

MIYAGIHIDETAKA Bandana Shirt

This is without a doubt our most famous item. I am very particular about the position of the patchwork, which is also a very important part of the remodeling process. The position is decided by me and the craftsman together. The center of the shirt must have a square pattern that reflects Bandana’s style.

MIYAGIHIDETAKA Denim Jacket

The jacket is deconstructed from two pairs of jeans and a denim jacket. I use raw materials as much as possible, which is why you see pockets and hem of pants on jackets.

MIYAGIHIDETAKA x NEEDLES Nel shirt

This shirt is from the Fall/Winter 2021 collaboration with NEEDLES. The core items of NEEDLES “7 Cuts Wide Shirt”, “Ribbon Wide Shirt” and MIYAGIHIDETAKA’s core item “Bandana Shirt” are deconstructed and restructured and integrated.

MIYAGIHIDETAKA x 5525gallery Fringe Necklace Bag

This bag is a collaboration with bag brand 5525gallery. I once dismantled a denim fringed vintage jacket and made it into a handmade bag, and this collection is based on that.