Ryunosuke Okazaki is a designer of his own label RYUNOSUKE OKAZAKI born in Hiroshima in 1995. He is currently based in Tokyo. A finalist of the prestigious LVMH Prize 2022, Ryunosuke Okazaki’s background as a graphic designer—educated at Tokyo University of the Arts before arriving in the world of fashion—is apparent in his extraordinary use of line. Using polyester, cotton, and ribbed knits he draws stark, chiseled forms that mesmerize as they expand in petal-like flows. Their infinite spirals and protruding angles, referencing at once creeping vines or religious pottery of Japanese prehistory, animate bygone civilisations who existed amongst nature in inherent harmony.

As much as his visions progress towards the future, a Hiroshima-native, Ryunosuke Okazaki imbues his couture with the spirit of collective memory. In the afterlife of historical catastrophe, their shapes ruminate on the psychic distortions brought about by modernity and redeem the severed coexistence of nature and culture. The prayers elicit the intimacy between people and nature, the objects of worship. Sleek but poetic, his garments could be seen as a living philosophy—while their flares delve into the unconscious, the relationships between the human or the artificial, with the unfathomability of nature staged within an otherworldly geometry.

Harmony between nature and human beings steals the limelight, the presence of sewn threads and patterns in fabrics linking the two elements. Ryunosuke Okazaki rehashes histories, the retelling of the catastrophe people underwent, and the light they redeemed at the end. Synthesizing all features in every outfit, he masters the art of human, nature, and history storytelling in art and fashion. Ryunosuke Okazaki said "Also, human history is a collection of personal stories, and my personal history interweaves with the history of human beings. I would continue designing reflections of what I have seen and felt from the environment around me." A poet and a designer, Ryunosuke Okazaki feed his observers with the past and present visions that elicit empathy and memories.