Tatsuro Horikawa: The Dark Elegance of Julius_7. What began as an audio-visual art project soon became one of the leading avant-garde fashion brands from Japan. To understand what Tatsuro Horikawa and Julius are all about, we need to go back to 1996, when Horikawa started his first clothing-related project “NUKE”. Horikawa was obsessed with creating in the underground techno scene. He traveled to some very hardcore clubs, doing set and visual communication work, graffiti, etc. Horikawa initially read a lot of works by the fathers of cyberpunk, Burroughs, William Gibson, and visual artwork with steampunk elements like Moebius and Enki Bilal. Then, after being advised by many people, they decided to put some visual images on T-shirts, and Nuke was founded. For the members of Nuke, becoming Julius was more of a title change and a change in the company's structure and mode of operation; instead of being a group of bad boys, they became professional company employees. Even though the activities belonging to this circle have come to an end after appearing in Paris and going international, Horikawa will endlessly trace his early roots for inspiration. ‘Black’ is the base of his creative palette because in Japanese Zen religion, it represents the “crazy darkness hidden in the shadows away from the light and it is the total color of complete and utter grief”. Horikawa describes black as the purest color." The reference to military uniforms gave birth to a practical, functional and cool minimalist clothing aesthetic for julius_7, which is also the core of the Julius production process. The military design also incorporates the Horikawa team's concept of "urban survival" clothing. While planning each season's runway show, Horikawa knows that it is difficult to plan a perfect show every season. Being a part of this "fashion game" doesn't stop Horikawa from rejecting the stupidity of some of the rules; but in the end, if he can create something beautiful and meaningful for the world, he thinks it's worth it. Writer: Fun-Boi-Trips Scan Provider: @f.liiiz