HIROSHI FUJIWARA Punk's not dead

Imagine that! There is someone on this planet who can make something out of nothing, he can add value to things in unsurpassed measures, everything he does oozes style and perfection, he can skate and ride a fixed gear bike like it was nothing. He owns the most stylish bag company in the world, an even more stylish clothing company and the biggest companies on this planet ask for his opinions, his advice and his style. There is a small shirt label on the sleeve that he came up with, it was just a little thing with one of his companies, good enough, but it spiralled out of control because every Dick and Tom is doing this now. He invented collaborations the way we know it. He travels the world on more than 200 days a year. He loves life and his friends. A man of the people and a friend to the stars, some kind of mixture between Karl Lagerfeld and Peter Pan. And what the heck, he is one of the coolest and nicest people you will ever meet, and that is meant in every possible way. Welcome to the world of Hiroshi Fujiwara.

There is not much that hasn’t been said about Hiroshi Fujiwara, foremost in Asian magazines, on websites and in blogs, and people who have been around for longer than the recent sneaker hype, will know his name for sure because he invented more things than you can throw a stick at. And nobody ever thanked him for that!
I cannot say what I have expected when I was on my way to meet him, but it defied everything my mind could make up. I was greeted into an office which I instantly related to. Stuff everywhere. The moment I sat down I was speechless because I tried to open my eyes wider than ever before to absorb everything. It kind of felt unreal, and as I sat there in his first floor office in Harajuku, I tried not to look like a kid who for the first time was about to meet the Rolling Stones. To be honest, I was a little shaky when I sat there and luckily I had my questions written down in a book otherwise I wouldn’t know a thing to say. He had a presence you could feel, a very friendly one. Although there was more than one thing happening in the room he was very focused on what he was doing at that very moment, which was fixing a beautiful yellow LOOK fixed gear bike that he built up for a friend. I wished I could ride fixed gear, so I made a mental note to train somewhere where nobody could see me fail. After seeing myself falling down on different occasions, it suddenly dawned to me why I felt so very comfortable in this office. Well, somebody actually lived in there, meaning he lives his work in a way that you can only understand when you love what you do to the fullest extend. Everywhere was a piece that could only be here, that defined who he was and what he did, that expressed his passion about the things he did and loved. The first things that caught my eye were boxes full of bike parts, wonderful fixed gears in candy colours, tires in matching colourways, handlebars, chains, tools, it kind of looked like in a bike shop and Jeff Staple, who just came in, mocked Hiroshi that the office was more of a bike sales and rental shop than an office. I tried to look everywhere and everywhere I looked there was something amazing to be seen. For instance the original artwork of a Sex Pistols flyer, I was holding actual pop art history in my hands; the shakes came back. There was a giant guitar shaped box by Hermès in one corner, Bearbricks I had never seen before, a replica gun from Blade Runner, tons of Nikes people would drool over inthe future, clothing that would be out next year, one of ones, one of fives, one of nones. It was all here. This was the very epicentre of the world we live in and I had not even been on the second floor. After so much visual input I was glad we could postpone the interview to the next day, since important races were to take place a Yoygi park with the MASH crew from San Fransisco, who were in town for the Tokyo Bike Film Fest. I wandered off into the streets of Harajuku and still thought about what to think about Hiroshi Fujiwara. All the questions I had were more of a trivial kind and I had to come up with something else, because what fun would it be to ask Peter Pan if he liked flying? I was in for a surprise now.
The next day came and I tried to be there on time, and to my absolute surprise I was. Well this is nothing to be taken lightly I thought and there was still the second floor of the office to be explored. The office hadn’t changed that much, maybe some cardboard boxes had been added and maybe one bike less but two new bike frames and maybe some other gadgets I hadn’t noticed then. To be honest I loved the office from the first moment I set foot in it so I couldn’t care about boxes. I felt at home to some extend and just as I was drifting off into the world of things again, the questioning had to begin.

Hiroshi, you have something what people would call a Midas touch, everything you touch turns to gold, does it come easy for you?
Well, yes it is kind of easy because I’m only interested in things that I like. You know some people may think „Oh wow, I like the same thing as him“, but I liked it already six months ago. They wait until someone pushes it but they hesitate to express their liking until maybe I say something about the brand.

As I know you are deeply into pop culture, you will certainly know your friendly neighborhood Spiderman and his moral value that says that with great power comes great responsibility. How do you feel about that, the power you certainly have and the responsibility it takes while being out and every move is watched.
About the watching thing, I don’t really care you know, I’m not special in any way and like I said it’s about what I feel is right for me.

Well you are a rare specimen, since you are a friend of crazy stars and you go ridingyour fixed gear bike at night at Yoyogi Park with your friends who are no celebreties. It feels like you are very grounded, down to earth.
You see, I’m not trying to be someone else to certain kinds of people, I will always be the same person be it a pop star or a fifteen year old kid, I’m just me. That is pretty rare because people easily get corrupted by power and the money that goes along with it; usually, people are more interested in riding their Bentleys than their bikes then.
Well the Bentley and the fixed gear bike have the same value for me. Besides, if a fifteen year old boy has a vast knowledge of bicycles and a forty year old mechanic knows everything about formula one, I honour their knowledge both the same. One of the few people I look up to are Malcom McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. I grew up with Punk, getting heavily into the Sex Pistols when I was twelve or thirteen. Since then I always cared about what he was doing, also the things Vivienne does.