{"id":401662,"date":"2026-04-28T14:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/401662\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:54:09","slug":"huge-nigo-retrospective-opens-at-design-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/401662\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge NIGO Retrospective Opens at Design Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

A huge exhibition dedicated to the life and archives of NIGO<\/a> has opened at the Design Museum<\/a> in London, bringing together hundreds of objects, a life-size replica of his teenage bedroom, and a custom-built tea house. <\/p>\n

Titled \u201cNIGO: From Japan with Love\u201d, the show has been carefully put together by Design Museum curators along with NIGO himself, who wanted to take visitors on a journey from his beginnings to the present day. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that NIGO had a massive collection of fashion and clothing, but it was only when we got to his studio in Tokyo that we realised he had so much more than that,\u201d curator Esme Hawes told Hypebeast. \u201cWe worked really closely with him, because a lot of the stories that we tell in the exhibition haven\u2019t ever been written down, they\u2019re just sort of verbal stories that Nigo knows himself.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Located in the basement gallery, visitors enter the exhibition via a set of stairs that brings you face to face with a full-size replica of NIGO\u2019s bedroom. As an obsessive archivist, NIGO has filled the room with the actual pieces he had at the time \u2013 from records, to the very same furniture. \u201cHe wanted to begin the show with his teenage bedroom, because a lot of his influences and inspirations started at a super early age,\u201d Hawes says.\n<\/p>\n

From the bedroom, you move through to some of the early vintage clothing pieces that he collected, before stepping into a replica of a section of his Tokyo studio where he displays his collection, constructed with towers of USM\u2019s Haller system \u2013 \u201che\u2019s a huge fan of USM,\u201d Hawes adds.\n<\/p>\n

\"Landmark<\/p>\n

Luke Hayes\n<\/p>\n

In here, the top two sections are dedicated to his 1980s Americana collection of fashion and objects. \u201cGrowing up in the 80s in Japan, there was a hangover of the American military presence in Japan, so there was a lot of American culture around,\u201d Hawes adds. \u201cYoung Japanese people would take this on as a rebellion to traditional Japanese values\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

Next, you head into the era of Nowhere \u2013 the Harajuku store he set up in the early 90s with fellow classmate Jun Takahashi. Flanking either side to the entrance of this section, designed to look like a shop front, is the original store sign, and original bags and packaging. <\/p>\n

The exhibition then turns to the origins of BAPE, with some of the first-ever T-shirts NIGO made on display. \u201cBAPE was very DIY in the beginning, and sometimes there were only five things made,\u201d said assistant curator Rosa Abbott. \u201cThat\u2019s partly due to kind of limitations on how much NIGO was able to produce himself, but also, it kind of becomes quite desirable when things are so limited run.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of set the model for what he would do later, of having limited edition drops and creating that scarcity and luxury, not through materials or brand names but through kind of the limited access to it,\u201d she adds.\n<\/p>\n

Beyond the clothes, the small objects created by NIGO for BAPE are also on view. These range from maps, to sponges, to paint tins, to the iconic banana Warhol-inspired pillow.\n<\/p>\n

Marking the fact that this show is happening in London, the team put together a section about the launch of the BAPE London store, complete with the original Union Jack neon light designed by Wonderwall.\n<\/p>\n

As visitors make their way through to the next part of the exhibition, they\u2019ll see an artwork created by KAWS for NIGO, on the occasion of him selling BAPE. Titled \u201cThe Death of NIGO\u201d, the painting commemorated him closing BAPE, and was inspired by traditional Japanese shoguns. The nod to the consumerism influence comes through the blister pack detailing. \u201cIt\u2019s a particularly special piece, and it\u2019s one of NIGO\u2019s most prized possessions,\u201d Hawes says.\n<\/p>\n

Kenzo and Human Made are the subject of the next section, with pieces from both labels presented in dialogue with one another. The mannequins are based on American musician Buddy Holly, someone NIGO had loved from a young age.\n<\/p>\n

The electric blue garments created for Kid Cudi for the Met Gala in 2022 feature in the next space, along with pieces from his time at Uniqlo, various items encapsulating his collaboration with Pharrell at Louis Vuitton, and his designs for Lee.\n<\/p>\n

For Hawes, some of her favourite pieces in this section are the ones that show NIGO\u2019s interest in supporting young designers. \u201cHe\u2019s this incredibly influential, impactful global figure, yet he still tries to champion younger, lesser-known creatives in his work,\u201d she says, pointing at two pieces in particular \u2013 a jacket by Cactus Plant Flea Market, and a papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 figure by illustrator Keiko Sootome.\n<\/p>\n

\"Landmark<\/p>\n

Luke Hayes\n<\/p>\n

The last section of the room is dedicated to NIGO\u2019s current passions\u00a0\u2013 training to become a master of tea ceremony, and ceramics. Paying homage to this, NOT A HOTEL, Pharrel and NIGO came together to create a custom-built tea house, which is built from glass, with a copper tiled roof. Inside, his ceramic tea bowls are on show.\n<\/p>\n

Finally, the show ends with a painting from NIGO\u2019s own collection \u2013 an artwork by Japanese calligrapher Y\u016bichi Inoue, featuring a symbol that translates to \u201cold age\u201d. \u201cHe\u2019s transitioning into this different stage in his life and a different stage in his career, and he felt that this was a really intimate and special moment to end the exhibition on,\u201d Hawes adds.\n<\/p>\n

NIGO: From Japan With Love opens to the public on May 1, and closes on October 4 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A huge exhibition dedicated to the life and archives of NIGO has opened at the Design Museum in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-401662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}