‘Without Australia, I couldn’t be who I am’: fashion designer Akira Isogawa on his 25-year journey
- Japanese-Australian for whom actress Cate Blanchett was an early advocate runs his business himself, has no online store, and shows little outside Australia
- He thrives on the multiculturalism of his adopted country, where his work is the subject of an exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum
Over the past 25 years there has been no shortage of ambitious Australian fashion designers who have aimed for the world stage by joining the international catwalk-show circuit and opening international boutiques. Invariably, they have taken on investors to fund their expansion.
Some have been extremely successful, a number of them making small fortunes along the way.
Many have, however, closed.
Japanese-Australian Akira Isogawa took a road less travelled, and his 25-year career journey is the focus of an exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, part of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences.
Running from December 15 until June 30, 2019, the exhibition, titled “Akira Isogawa”, features approximately 100 works and is accompanied by a monograph published by Thames and Hudson Australia with a foreword by Cate Blanchett.
The Academy Award-winning Australian actress was one of Isogawa’s first clients when he opened his first boutique in the affluent Sydney suburb of Woollahra in 1993.
