Katsuya Kamo’s One-of-a-Kind Headpieces

Fanciful, impressive, precious and often mysterious – if not alarming – Katsuya Kamo‘s headpieces have been alluring the fashion world for several decades, in Japan and beyond. Unlike French stylist Charlie le Mindu, recognised as one of the masters of ‘haute coiffure’, Katsuya Kamo does not always use hair as his primary material. He often covers it. His creations include a pheasant balanced on a model’s head (for Junya Watanabe) or a heavy headdress made entirely from white paper and covered in barbed wire, camellias and grapes (a curious mix of wire netting, an artificial fruit bowl and Marie Antoinette’s wig, created for Chanel in 2009 and which has remained in the annals of the fashion house ever since).

Quiet and discreet in his personal life and known for being an introvert, Katsuya Kamo creates eye-catching objects that are the polar opposite of his own image. He works using materials he gathers from anywhere and everywhere. A journalist for Le Monde, when invited to his home, noted that his apartment was full to the brim, containing a collection of little objects (bits of latex, dead leaves, insects, broken mirrors…). These things might one day appear in one of his creations, of which he has now produced hundreds.