IMPACT DESIGN HUB 2021 HONOREE
About Designer
British Nigerian Designer Tokyo James studied Mathematics at Queen Mary University London. Shortly after, he began his career as a young fashion stylist in london working for various international publications, as well as directing digital campaigns for brands such as Brioni, Issey Miyake and Puma Black Label.
With years of experience under his belt, James launched his digital monthly publication, Rough UK, an authoritative, unapologetic voice with a penchant for strong visual imagery that later expanded to Rough Italia and Rough New York after its successful run in the UK. Created for modern men who want simplicity with an edge, the Tokyo James fashion brand was born in Lagos, Nigeria after the James relocation from the UK.
Tokyo James.
Impact Design in Materials · Process · People
People - Empowering local or underprivileged communities, or traditional craftsmanship Tokyo James celebrates traditional craftmanship in all its collection and pieces. The vision of the brand is to celebrate the intersection and commonality of two worlds - two opposites. These two worlds refers to various things - for example, between two opposite fabrics, between two styles or between the good and the bad - however something that always stays is the commonality between the two heritages of the brand - UK and Nigeria. This means that all collections always uses both British and Nigerian traditional craftmanship. Majority of our collections also celebrates local and/or underpriviliged communites - a great example is the current SS22 collection "OSU" (translated - Outcast), that celebrates the outcasts in Nigeria.
Process - Applying recycling, upcycling, rental or other circular business models All collections by Tokyo James has a selected amount of limited pieces that are all made from deadstock. Meaning that we have implemented a business model where deadstock from previous collections are never thrown as waste but always kept for upcoming collections and used at another point in time. This could be for both customized orders or as mentioned - in a later collection. Some of our signature pieces - such as the Tokyo James logo T-shirt are solely made from upcycled materials.
Materials - Applying renewable, regenerative, or other circular materials Tokyo James has its production in Nigeria and sources most of its fabrics on ground. The fabrics that make it to Nigeria is most often fabric waste from around the world, we ensure that these fabrics are being used by sourcing the fabrics here. Except from this, we always ensure to use as friendly fabrics as possible. For example, all our leather pieces has a cheaper Vegan leather option which is commonly the fabric we promote and use in our lookbooks and linesheets. Leather is only used for special requests.
