How One of Japanese Fashion’s Best-Kept Secrets Found Success Without Looking for It
The offices of HYKE, the Japanese fashion brand, are located in the trendy Nakameguro area in Tokyo, virtually next door to those of Human Made, NIGO’s brand, as well as one of the two branches of his restaurant, Curry Up. The white building itself is clean-looking but not characterless, just like HYKE’s clothes. Inside the equally clean space on a recent spring day, buyers were previewing the new collection, ducking in and out in-between white racks, trying on HYKE’s parkas and shell jackets, and nodding in appreciation of the fit and finish.
This was my first time seeing the showroom and meeting the designers, though I’ve been watching this brand, whose offerings are hard to find in the West, for a while now. I encountered HYKE in 2015 on my first trip to Japan at United Arrows & Sons in upper Harajuku. I was drawn to a trenchcoat, and I could not exactly put my finger on as to why. At first glance, it was a rather classic trench. And yet, it made me do a double-take. Perhaps it was the shade of beige that did not look bougie at all, or the heaviness of the cotton twill it was made of, or the precise finishing and attention to detail. Or perhaps it was a combination of all those elements that amounted to something bigger than the sum of its parts. Regardless, whoever made it, I thought, knew what they were doing. I noted the brand’s name and stored it in the back of my mind.
I was back in Japan in 2018 when HYKE released its second collaboration with The North Face. Walking past Tokyo Midtown Tower, where a branch of the department store Isetan was located, I noticed a line. Everyone in it was waiting for the collab to drop. I came back the next day to the main branch of Isetan to see the few pieces that were left. What I saw was striking: pleated skirts and high neck anoraks carried an imprint of considered design. This was a real collaboration that united the know-how of two brands, and not just a bunch of merch with two logos smashed together.
Since its inception in 2013, HYKE, designed by Hideaki Yoshihara and Yukiko Ode, who are married, has built a cult following in Japan with a brand that makes unfussy womenswear where functionality is as important as the look. HYKE takes the couple’s obsession with workwear and military gear — aesthetics normally reserved for menswear — and marries it not only with such techwear staples like GORE-TEX and Pertex, but also with fine wools and silks. Fashionable Japanese women have repaid HYKE for such a considerate approach to womenswear by making it one of the most desirable brands in the country. And though HYKE also has a small though loyal international fanclub, for now Japan remains its central market. HYKE’s rise there was so meteoric that by 2014 it was collaborating with Mackintosh, by 2015 with adidas Originals, and by 2018 with The North Face.
Since then, HYKE has matured into a mainstay of Japanese fashion that offers a distinct style honed through years of meticulous product research. When I asked the couple in 2024 why HYKE became successful, Ode said that no one was doing what they were doing at the time. This rang true. Adapting menswear to womenswear is not new; designers have been doing it since Coco Chanel turned striped fishermans sweaters into a wardrobe staple of rich Parisian women. But usually, the model for adaptation is rooted in men’s tailoring and shirting and not, say, an American military field jacket.
Yoshihara and Ode came to design in a roundabout way. In 1996, the couple opened a vintage store in Daikanyama, called Bowles, where they sold American and European workwear and military gear that they sourced from around the globe. Like all true enthusiasts they felt possessive of what they were selling. Sometimes it was hard to let go of a particularly good piece, knowing they may never see it again. The couple had an idea: Why not recreate and reimagine those precious pieces? Thus their first line, called “green,” was born. Yoshihara and Ode launched the brand in 1998, selling it alongside their vintage finds. green found moderate success, and showed on the runway in Tokyo from 2005 to 2009. Simultaneously, the pair was building a family. They decided to close the brand in order to concentrate on raising their two boys, Keishin and Eisei.
Four years went by before Yoshihara and Ode launched HYKE, an amalgamation of the first initials of their own and their children’s first names. The principle was similar to green, taking cues from vintage clothes, of which the couple still has a sizable archive, and reworking their shapes and cuts in fabrics and colors that, while hinting at provenance, have been taken far enough beyond it as to be suitable for the realm of ready-to-wear. Instead of doing an umpteenth line of reproductions, for which Japan has already become famous, the couple decided to reshape the garments as womenswear. Largely this came from Ode’s own dressing habits. “I never liked dressing very feminine,” she says, “so I would end up wearing men’s clothes a lot.”
These transformations result in garments that are so elegant that it takes a lot of squinting to uncover the technical secrets and sources of inspiration. Take, for example, a cape made of soft navy wool, cut so one side of the garment is larger than the other, making the zipper and snap closure fall to one side, creating a soft asymmetry. It looks like pure fashion but it’s actually a riff on a British military sniper cape. The reason that one side is larger than the other was originally so it could hide a scoped rifle from the elements. Another dress from a collection currently in stores features a voluminous back that falls nicely on the body, though the design’s original purpose is taken from a military cape with volume enough to accommodate a backpack underneath.
To highlight its ethos, in lieu of show notes HYKE simply provides a list of garments that inspired a collection, a list that would make any vintage clothing nerd swoon. To wit, “ECWCS Gen2 Level 7, U.S. Army ECWCS Gen2 Parka, U.S. Army A-2 Flight Jacket, U.S.N. P-Coat,” and so on. At the showroom, in order to illustrate their design process, Ode pulled out a navy peacoat with a sloping shoulder. First, she pointed out that a military peacoat would be made from rough, sturdy wool. This one was made of soft, double-face wool specifically developed for HYKE. The side pockets, instead of being lined in corduroy as an original military version would, were lined in a softer fabric. The buttons were exact reproductions of the originals. They carried not only the customary anchors, but also 13 stars, which harked back to the time the United States consisted of thirteen colonies.
This thoughtful approach to design and manic attention to fit and finish has fueled HYKE’s rapid rise. In the 11 short years since its inception, HYKE is now sold in over a hundred stores worldwide. Evidently Ode is not alone in her quest for functional clothes easily adapted to a modern woman’s life. And there is a growing menswear contingent that HYKE caters to by simply making some of its more genderfluid garments in bigger sizes, without changing the patterns.
Yet, the couple is not keen on taking over the world. HYKE’s representation in the West is still scant, and the brand does not even have a Tokyo boutique. When I asked them why they would pass on an opportunity to have their own store, which would allow them to build their world, Yoshihara and Ode simply said that they would prefer to spend more time with their kids. There was something disarming about this. As I left the showroom, I thought that maybe it’s better this way. In the world where everything has become readily available and easily accessible, a sense of discovery carries its own weight.
