The legendary figure from across the ocean – the one and only Nigo.

A little over two years ago, one of the most notorious names in Japanese fashion announced that he was leaving the label he had founded way back in 1993 – a label that had become synonymous with streetwear and the culture of its time A Bathing Ape.

When Nigo revealed he was exiting A Bathing Ape after two decades at its helm, the announcement marked the end of an era. In typically visual, irreverent fashion, the designer posted an image to Instagram showing a toy-version of himself being lowered into a grave by a KAWS-drawn interpretation of Bart Simpson. It was almost everything you’d expect from the man.

Nigo, born Tomoaki Nagao, was a devout hip-hop addict, and it was this that served as his introduction into the scene he would later go on to dominate. At 16 he would regularly venture into Tokyo to go record shopping at a store called Cisco, and that year managed to save up enough to purchase his first set of turntables. Enamored with hip-hop and its style, the wannabe-DJ began dressing like the icons he found on record sleeves: people like Public Enemy, LL Cool J and The Beastie Boys became his icons.

After high school, Nigo swapped sleepy Gunma for the neon lights and late-night bars of the nation’s capital as he accepted a place at the seminal Bunka Fashion College. However, while he did attend classes, Nigo’s real education was in Tokyo’s nightclubs, where he found himself making connections that would further his fashion career more than any lessons in pattern-cutting ever would. He would later remark that he learned “zero” from Bunka, and the most important thing he took from it was meeting Jun Takahashi (who would go on to found UNDERCOVER).

It was during this time that the young Nagao also befriended the so-called “Godfather of Harajuku,” Hiroshi Fujiwara. In fact, it was a direct result of the pair’s close friendship that he earned his infamous nickname. “Nigo” translates as “number two” – a reference to the duo’s striking visual similarity and the eventual assistant’s role he would play to Fujiwara.

With Hiroshi Fujiwara’s help, Nigo and Takahashi would go on to found Nowhere in 1993 – a niche fashion boutique that sold a selection of international streetwear brands, shoes by adidas and Nike as well as their own respective wares. It was at this time that A Bathing Ape was conceived, in conjunction with Nigo’s friend and frequent collaborator, SK8THING.

While the brand’s original name (A Bathing Ape in Lukewarm Water) was certainly a mouthful, it incorporated references that would ultimately define the brand’s output for years to come. The first drew parallels with The Planet of the Apes, with simian iconography quickly becoming a visual hallmark of the label. The latter, however, was a reference to a Japanese colloquialism that mocked the opulence of post-war, consumption-obsessed Japan – an ironic parallel for a brand that would come to embody this stereotype in many respects.