Like a rebellious band member or an unruly lover, Takahiro Miyashita has a talent for breaking up and making up. The 53-year-old Japanese designer, who founded cult label Number (N)ine in 1997, is relaunching the brand 15 years after stepping away from it.
After leaving, he started TakahiroMiyashitaTheSoloist (The Soloist for short) but departed last year with an elusive Instagram post that read: “Rock and Roll never dies… The music keeps on playing, louder and louder. Just on a different stage. A new band, a new noise, catch me there.” It was a teaser for his return to Number (N)ine—though the details around the launch were as mysterious as the designer himself. So I went to meet him.
On a rain-drenched day in Tokyo, I arrive at a boardroom in his PR’s office, unsure what to expect. Miyashita is known for being guarded, and interviews with him are rare, as are photographs of him. His reticence previously earned him the nickname Taka the Oyster. Eugene Rabkin, the founder of the magazine StyleZeitgeist and one of the handful of journalists to have met Miyashita, says the designer was cautious during their first interview in 2017. “I think that’s because he is careful that his work is precisely understood, but we bonded over our mutual love of youth culture, and we have kept in touch,” Rabkin says. “He is one of the most genuine people I know.”
When Miyashita arrives, he is dressed from head to toe in black. Spectacles hang from a thick black chain around his neck, and he wears a nylon Patagonia windbreaker. He is known for sensitive designs and a deep, melancholic love for music and poetry, but the first impression he gives off is confident—tough, even. “I don’t open up easily,” he says. “I’m a closed-off person. I’ve always said that what I want to say and communicate is expressed through my designs, so I don’t think interviews are important.” Under his left eye is a small tattoo of a teardrop—a symbol that I’ve heard gang members in the USA get after they’ve committed murder. Gulp. But the reason behind Miyashita’s is innocent. “I didn’t know the meaning of it when I got it,” he laughs. “I haven’t killed anyone. I just think shedding tears is an important, beautiful thing.”
The most dangerous thing about Miyashita is his knack for leaving audiences stunned—or even weeping—at his runway shows, which often feature waifish models in romantic clothing. He is fashion’s original sad boy. The designs he has shown over the past three decades, spanning gorpcore to grunge, have been crafted with masterful sensitivity, an intoxicating balance of punk and poetry. Even the simplest garments have been enlivened with delicate details: a whisper of lace on a hemline or the edged neck on a tank top. Romance has appeared in dandyish jackets given panels of brocade and Americana inspired by Miyashita’s formative travels to the States as a teen. I remember, after one of his Paris shows for The Soloist in 2018, a usually stern buying director, sparing with her praise, reverently whispered: “It’s absolutely incredible what he does.”
Number (N)ine’s relaunch has been brewing for years. “I started thinking a lot about the future during the pandemic,” Miyashita says. “I’d never really heard of a fashion brand reuniting, restarting, or reviving [from the owner], so I thought it might be fun to try it.” Though he publicly announced his departure from The Soloist in July 2025, he had actually become an external contractor for the company four years earlier, significantly scaling back his involvement. “I’m sorry to my fans, but the truth is that four years ago, my feelings drifted away from it,” he says.