Takaaki Sakaguchi, who passed away in 2023, was a Japanese designer who chose Ōtautahi Christchurch as his home.
Originally from Osaka, the designer was from a cotton-weaving family that had become wealthy in the 1920s through exports. The young Sakaguchi loved art but graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Kinki University in Osaka in 1990.
It was the introduction to Ayako Koshino, the Japanese designer who reinvented kimono for contemporary tastes and older women, that he learned pattern-cutting, first as chief designer and then as Koshino’s personal assistant. He was asked to create a trial show of his own and it was from there that his label began. He moved to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1998 and started designing and producing clothes in Merivale, an affluent suburb in Ōtautahi.
Sakaguchi, in later life, moved away from fashion and took to ceramics. He joined the Canterbury Pottery Association and found a natural affinity with using clay as a medium for creativity, twice becoming a finalist in the Portage Ceramic Awards.
The piece (above) by the designer has just been added to the studio collection. It is in three pieces: a short jacket with two zipped panels at the bottom. The panels can be unzipped to wear the jacket or it can be worn longer as a stylish and striking dress. It is unconventional yet simple, and is a great example from this New Zealand designer.
Read more:
https://www.thepress.co.nz/culture/350075177/life-story-man-behind-merivales-sakaguchi-couture
https://www.asiamediacentre.org.nz/news/from-fashion-to-ceramics-japanese-designer-takaaki-sakaguchi
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