Beauty:Beast - A Fairytale Spoken In Attire
Beauty:Beast is the Ura-Harajuku punk classic that integrated sensuous notions of folklore into a world of aggression and nihilism.
Founded in 1990 by Takao Yamashita, the brand’s emergence aligned with the uprise of Urahara culture – a time in which Tokyo’s creatives spawned plenty of tasteful labels, largely informed by the west’s subcultural events of Hip-Hop and Punk. The latter, a cornerstone for various Urahara labels, also initiated the unique Beauty:Beast.
Growing up, Yamashita perceived verbal communication with anxiety and suspicion, desperately seeking a channel for expression that was frank and honest. Eventually, he began using fashion as a tool, later stating that “clothes could visualize subtle expressions and silences that can’t be expressed in words.” His struggles with self-consciousness, paired with a rebellion against an unsupporting father, would impact his design ethos, aesthetically and philosophically.
Only 20 years old at the time, Yamashita enrolled in the Marui Design Audition in Osaka as means of going against his father, who expressed despise for his son’s enterprise. Eventually, the drafts submitted were accepted, asking Yamashita to produce his designs. Without a clue but industrious character, he managed to involve the right people to arrange the vision. This early experience has had a lasting impact and equipped the creative with the know-how and confidence to conceive his brainchild Beauty:Beast.
Much of the brand’s identity can be derived from its unique name. Taken from the French folktale, it underscores “the beauty of the human heart, not bound by outward appearances” – a reflection of Yamashita’s struggles between curiosity and awe.
Aesthetically influenced by the avant-garde bondage of Westwood’s and McLaren’s Seditionaries, Beauty:Beast involved fantastical themes, which were collaterally expressed with the designer’s music productions. With appearances in Paris during the 90s, introducing unique designs like the “Dark Knight,” a rabbit-shaped backpack, Beauty:Beast became a Urahara classic among peers like Undercover, Number(Nine), and 20471120.
![DJ Hiroshi Fujiwara for Boon Magazine [2005]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57825361440243db4a4b7830/1666262410823-4CDPIAUMVY5KJQX0F14I/1BBFE35C-050B-48C0-8342-4BECD2EC170B+%281%29.JPG)
