Photo by Fahim Kassam
Eugene: Was there ever a moment in your youth that really influenced you from a fashion perspective?
Taka: That’s a good question and a big one. I knew that I wanted to become a designer at an early age in my teens. I knew where I wanted to go, which is strange in a sense. In Japan, you go to school, you study hard, you go to college and you end up at some job. It’s all mapped out. But I came from a very traditional family. Have you ever watched this Netflix show called Unorthodox?
Eugene: No. What’s it about?
Taka: It’s about the community and the life of Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But it’s a totally different world, and their culture and personas aren’t always accepted but they’re able to fit into the community.
In a sense, I felt the same way: It wasn’t to that extreme, but I just started to question why everyone was expecting me to follow the path that was already established in a sense.
It’s not something that I wanted to do, so I had to come up with something else. I had that pressure at an early age and I wasn’t good at communicating verbally. But I was able to express ideas through drawing and designing.
The other occupation I considered becoming an architect. Because I like combining the two sides of things. One side is expression and form, and the other side is a more mathematical part.
Eugene: What would’ve been that traditional occupation put forth by your family and your traditions?
Taka: My dad is a Shinto priest, I’m not sure if many people are aware of what that is. It’s a beautiful tradition. He’s the 49th generation. I have two sisters and one little brother.
That means I’m the oldest male heir, so they were all expecting — they, means not just my family, but the community in this little town in rural Japan — me to become the 50th generation. So while I respected the culture and tradition.
I thought, “Why does it have to be me? If there’s someone who wants to do it, that person should be doing it. I’m not the one.” I guess the difference between Hasidic Orthodox Jews and myself is I had access to the Internet and TV, so in a sense, I at the same time grew up with a Japanese version of American culture that was heavily influenced by digital globalization. So with that, I grew up wearing t-shirts, jeans, and sneakers.
“At some point in time, the utilitarian thing needs to be democratized; this might be just part of it. How do I feel about it? I think it’s good that people are adopting more of our design.
It would be even better if we could somehow have a dialogue with different types of people about nature and the outdoors because I think that’s the type of thing that will be missed in urban life.
There’s so much beauty to the outdoors and people, especially during times like these, are trying to find more balance in their life.”
— Taka Kasuga, VEILANCE Creative Director
Eugene: Do think that because you were the one person in your family to go against tradition, that provided you a different point of view in design? Because you didn’t grow up in a family of creative people and you were able to choose your own path.
Taka: It’s kind of funny. I wanted to become a designer and then actually became a designer, and it’s a constant soul searching in a sense and finding out what I’m very passionate about. I worked in Tokyo and then in New York for 10 years. And now I’m in Vancouver.
When I was in New York, I was called a fashion designer and thought ‘Hmm, that doesn’t sound right to me. Is that really who I am?’
In New York, the design was more of a status symbol. I was missing more purposeful design. That was the whole reason I originally went to the US.
The whole reason I wanted to come over was I wanted to be a part of what was next because I grew up with American icons such as T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers. I wanted to design things that provide that sense of freedom regardless of whatever circumstance you’re in.
I’m very very interested in the outdoors because if you think about T-shirts, jeans, sneakers, all of them were invented for ultimately utilitarian purposes. Jeans were made for coal miners and T-shirts came from naval underwear.
But then at some point in time, people adapted this functional approach into the every day, because it works. And at some point, it also became the symbol of freedom.
I was very interested in that phenomenon, When I saw that Arc’teryx was looking for someone, I said ‘yeah, why not?’ It was a big change, but it’s been great.
Eugene: How would you describe the VEILANCE versus Arc’teryx (mainline) relationship and how do you think it’s potentially changed over the years?
I look at things such as F1 racing because it’s a trickle-down effect. Technology that’s developed at the highest level of automotive racing might eventually end up in your economy car, for example.
Taka: I think it actually goes both ways. We work on the same design floor and we share ideas, resources, and the technologies we’re developing.
Some ideas that were developed by the Arc’teryx outdoor team and vice versa influence each other. The big difference is that the application is different and we target different end usecases.
“Doing a new thing is not easy because not many people understand it (VEILANCE’s Cambre denim) and this was one of the things that everyone opposed.
Not everyone was behind it. No one thought it was going to work, but once it hit the market, it was the total opposite. It was one of our most successful styles. Sometimes the hardest thing is what’s happening inside. Sometimes you need to follow your gut.”
— Taka Kasuga, on the success of Spring/Summer ’20 Cambre denim
“In North America, people are expecting sketches and flat drawings from designers and you send it off to the factory somewhere else to get sampled. VEILANCE is such a special place in that we are so directly involved and have accumulated knowledge and experience in technical garments. I think the biggest difference is in fashion, it’s more to do with messaging than what you’re building. How we work is more to do with an experience that we want to achieve with the design.”
“I think the answers can be simple. ‘Hey, here’s a traditional t-shirt. And here’s another t-shirt that works better. Which one would you choose?’
They look the same. They’re both cool. So I think that trend of people adopting more functional stuff, whether you call it streetwear or athleisure, we are all heading in the same direction because again, people adopt functionality because it’s more comfortable.”
“I’m motivated by potential; there are so many great things that we could do. That’s my motivation. Am I a futurist? I don’t know, but because we have such long development times, I have to be.”
