A Young Designer Lands a Collab With Travis Scott's Cactus Jack. What Next?
I've known Kozaburo Akasaka for the better part of the better part of a decade but had never before told him where I'm from. So, when we speak over Zoom on a frigid December afternoon, that Akasaka is wearing one of his Travis Scott-approved staple caps that fuses together vintage dad hats from St. Pete and New York, it feels like pure serendipity.
That's me in a hat! But it's Akasaka, too.
The founder of the eponymous Kozaburo fashion brand and its sub-labels, Akasaka has perfected a self-described "abnormal creative practice" that epitomizes "a 'brutal' sensitivity, with the visual affect and emotion of wabi-sabi but modern and with a lot of power."
With Kozaburo, Akasaka has mastered a form of singular and ever-evolving neo-westernwear that mixes Bōsōzoku leathers with deep black ultra-flared jeans and beefy boots to match, macho in its presentation but also unquestionably graceful.
And Kozaburo is, by any measure, successful.
The label was previously stocked by Dover Street Market New York and still sold by luminary retailers like SSENSE. And, through it, Akasaka has earned membership into the CFDA and an LVMH Special Prize.
However, as any young designer will tell you, fashion accolades and even powerful partners aren't cruise control for success but an essential for simply existing, let alone growing as a business.
Kozaburo prefers a low profile but visibility, and the cash that comes with it, is never not a concern.
"I'm still independent and small," Akasaka says. "But there's some appreciation from good people who understand the aesthetic and brand value."
Akasaka's stapled caps were not designed with fame in mind but, thanks to Travis Scott's Cactus Jack, they got there anyways.
"I've been working on this cap for quite some time," Akasaka says. "The idea came from Bakohan bowls and kintsugi," Japanese wabi-sabi techniques for repairing broken pottery with gold filling and metal "clamps" that align with the craft-conscious approach of Akasaka's Phantom Ranch ( PRM) line.
"Phantom Ranch is an annex of this recycling project [I'd developed for Kozaburo], focused on handsewn craft," he explains. "It's quite limited, because we handle production in-house."
At this point, Akasaka lifts up his laptop and takes me towards the back of his Brooklyn apartment, where two black-clad Kozaburo folks are noisily stapling away.
The PRM hats are sourced from vintage items that're carefully (but enthusiastically) ripped apart then stapled by a special machine that stabs thick, glistening staples into the caps' faded cotton weave.
Their visual appeal is obvious, in that they're so obviously cool, epitomizing an aggressive contrast that just so happens to quite organically gel with Travis Scott's grungy stylistic inclinations. Scott's team thought so, too.
"Somehow [the hats] caught the eye of Cactus Jack," Akasaka recalls.
Pretty impressive considering their relative lack of visibility — Akasaka produced hardly any of them due to the difficulties in procuring the stapling machine, only selling a handful to partner stores since 2022.
Certainly, a testament to the investigative power of Cactus Jack's team.
"I think there's some overlap with [my work and] their brand direction," says Akasaka. "Western, desert landscapes, utopian ideas with a raw edge to them."
Fortuitous stuff, especially with Scott seeking to fill out collaborative partners for a November 2024 fashion convention curated by Cactus Jack. And so, alongside big names like Vetements and Diesel, Cactus Jack invited Akasaka to participate.
Just ahead of the event, Akasaka's team rapidly stitched together vintage caps and fresh Cactus Jack hats, creating a handful of one-off accessories so plainly covetable that they're already surfacing on resale sites for several hundred dollars apiece.
"It was very last minute to be honest," Akasaka says. "But it's been successful in terms of reaction. Michèle Lamy [Rick Owens' partner] came to visit our booth and really liked the cap."
She truly did, because she was still wearing one weeks later in a December 16 Instagram Story.
Aside from occasional industry nods and celebrity moments — years back, some stylists had sourced a Kozaburo cactus T-shirt for Scott and Young Thug — Akasaka mostly keeps to himself. But with Scott and Lamy's cosigns came a minor flood of interest that surprised Akasaka, whose hard-edged designs bely a soft-spoken thoughtfulness.
"I'm not sure [if the attention is comfortable for me]," he says. "I'm not sure I feel a bit numb or if it's always been this sense of discomfort. I'm trying to understand."
The eternal dilemma: Art vs. commerce. Do you retreat into routine or make the most of newfound salability?
To be clear, Akasaka is pleased by the overwhelmingly enthusiasm and especially newcomers' sincere appreciation for his work. At the same time, his priorities remain clear: Nothing comes before craft.
"It's not only about making money," he explains. "I want to be genuine and honest in terms of creation, which could be a self-indulgent thing. But I'm trying to find what I need to do as a designer. Giving people what they want without pushing too far in an uncomfortable way."
As such, Akasaka's team will continue to create PRM staple caps at a realistic pace, eventually releasing them on the Kozaburo web store in limited batches (first drop: December 18).
Akasaka cites reclusive mask-maker Shin Murayama as a guiding light, someone for whom art always comes first even at risk of sacrificing greater exposure. He's still very much open to future collaborations of this sort, if they feel right — "If you have anyone in mind, let me know!" — but it's otherwise business as usual.
The extra buzz "is helpful for these CFDA fashion grant applications [I'm filing out]. There's always an interest in money but at the same time, it's a different world," says Akasaka. "I wanna be a free spirit, a free player."
