Tomihiro Kono is a master of transformative hair artistry, an alchemist of style, he bends the rules of conventional beauty with every strand he meticulously molds. With an arsenal of wigs that are nothing short of subversive, Kono fuses art and rebellion, revealing the hidden potential of hair as a catalyst for personal expression and cultural commentary. His creations, ranging from the mind-bending to the shockingly avant-garde, provoke, disrupt, and question the very foundations of our perception. Below he invites us to step into a kaleidoscopic universe that defies conventions and redefines the very essence of self-expression.

Hello Tomihiro san! Thanks for taking the time to talk to GATA. For those who might not know you, could you please introduce yourself?

I’m a wig maker..I’m back from NY and am now based in Tokyo. I work remotely with international clients and artists such as Björk, The Yeah-Yeah-Yeahs, NewJeans, Marc Jacobs, Heavn, Martin Margiela, Yueqi Qi, Instagram, etc. Now I’m exhibiting my wigs at Wereld Museum Rotterdam and from October I’ll be exhibiting at Kanazawa 21st century Museum. Along with my wig work, I’m also a director at Konomad, a new creative platform I’ve created with my partner and photographer Sayaka Maruyama. We curate pop-up events and started our own publication.

We read in another interview that when you were little, it was your dream to be a pet groomer. Have you ever circled back to this and thought of releasing fancy wigs for pets?

Some of my fancy wigs can be worn by dogs and cats. I think that it’s cute as long as they don’t refuse it.

Your work often explores the intersection of hair and identity. How do you believe hairstyling can contribute to personal and cultural narratives, and what stories do you aim to tell through your creations?

I published Personas 111 coincidentally at the beginning of Covid-19, which I was totally not

expecting. In some sense, it matched the social background. The way I suggest hairstyles with wigs can be related to searching for a new identity. I started to post one or two images a day on Instagram because I couldn’t do the book launch because of the lockdown in NY, and I got so much feedback and reactions from people. It was when people were staying at home worldwide, so they were looking out for something inspiring. I made AR filters of my wigs from the book, and that also garnered a lot of attention.

How do you navigate the line between subverting societal norms of beauty standards and appropriation, ensuring your work remains respectful and inclusive?

I don’t really think about it consciously, but because I’ve lived in London and NY, I’m now quite good at making a balance of beauty. I feel Asian, European, American and African people have a difference in their beauty standards so I respect the differences to begin with. At the same time, I try to find what they like in common. Because I’m Japanese, my idea is based on the Japanese notion of beauty, but now my aesthetic is mixed with different cultural standards of beauty.

Your collaborations with fashion designers have resulted in visually striking and unforgettable runway moments. Could you share a collaboration that pushed your creative boundaries and challenged your own perceptions of whats possible in hairstyling?

The most challenging collaborations were the Paris collections with Junya Watanabe between 2013-2016. The designers asked me to create a new hairstyle, something totally different from what I had made in my archives, and what Junya Watanabe did in their past collections. Creating a new style is not about creating my personal favourite style, so I abandoned my method and tried to find a new way. Instead of using scissors, combs and organic materials, I started using rulers, cutters and paper. That’s when my design

became more methodological and mathematic and new.

The notion of edginess in fashion and beauty is ever-evolving. How do you define edginess in the context of hairstyling, and how do you continuously push the boundaries to create hairstyles that captivate and provoke?

I’m always trying to make a visually striking image. What is new and edgy in the period of time changes. What people think is realistic and cool is the new edgy look, so we look for it. What was considered edgy back in my teenage period was punk and rock, but I feel now, that more younger people like anime-inspired / digital character-looking hair.

How do you navigate and challenge the disciplinary lines between hairstyling, art and fashion, and what impact do you hope this approach will have on the industry?

I’m proud to be taking part in the upcoming DXP group exhibition in Kanazawa, Japan. I believe the power of hair transformation is very crucial to our lives in terms of character and identity-making. For some reason, humanity has been interested in transformations for so long and I think it’s our nature to have a desire to transform. I’ve always believed it’s hard to divide fashion, beauty and art, I think they are all connected. I would say, if the industry is already divided into fashion, beauty, and art, it’s interesting to see the artists and designers’ work exhibited in a different field, in a new combination. so that we can see it with fresh eyes. For this coming exhibition, I’ve been selected as a wig artist along with other digital artists and sculptors, which I find to be a very interesting and new combination.

Your hairstyles often evoke strong emotions and provoke a visceral response. Can you share an instance where you intended to elicit a specific emotional reaction through your work, and how did you achieve it?

I don’t really intend to do it.

As a visionary in the hairstyling industry, how do you envision the future of hairstyling and its potential to evolve as an art form? Are there any emerging trends or technologies that particularly excite you?

I think it’s interesting that we can make wigs out of our hair, and store the hair in the current condition for our future when we become bald or grey hair. You know we have the best condition of hair right now…we cannot keep our skin, but we can keep our hair in storage. Do you think it’ll become a type of art form for old people to wear wigs made of their younger hair? I think hair has always been an art form throughout history. It’s unique how each tribal group used them as material. It’s a part of the human body that we can cut and arrange. Hair is an organic material and lasts almost forever so we can always recycle it. I think it’s interesting, the idea of somehow recycling or upcycling hair.

It seems like Bjork is your dream come true person to have worked with, is there anyone else regardless of being alive, that you would like to style?

I wanted to make a wig for Andy Warhol because we know him through the remaining photographs where he wears a blond wig. I would have been honoured if I could style him.

GATA loves cinema, are there any films that you feel have inspired you as a person or have directly inspired your work or pieces?

I love all the films by director Juzo Itami. Tim Burton’s Edward Scissor Hands, Takeshi Kitano’s Sonatine, Hana-bi and Kid’s Return, as well as Akira by Katsuhiko Otomo.

Hair as a Canvas: Exploring the Radical World of Wig Artistry with Tomihiro Kono