Resume of Style. Nobuhiko Kitamura #6

2025.2.14

Text： Kenichi Aono

Edit： Suzuki Yusuke

Be it fashion, music or sports, there is a style that only each person can bring out in any genre. “Style is Everything.” That’s right, someone once said that style is everything. “Style Resume” is a series of interviews with adults who, as the name suggests, have style. Updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the sixth installment is the story of Nobuhiko Kitamura, designer for HYSTERIC GLAMOUR, who lives his life with music.

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06. In 1981, he entered Tokyo Mode Gakuen.

One day, when I had already decided to go to Yamano Beauty School, I found out that Tokyo Mode Gakuen was opening. Shinjuku West Exit, 43rd floor... I wondered what it was, and decided to stop by on my way home from buying records in Shinjuku on my day off. When I went there, there was no one there, but then someone came out. When I said "I was just curious," he asked me, and he showed me around the school. This person was the principal, and after listening to him talk about various things and thinking that people would change quite a bit if they looked at the view from the 43rd floor every day, I asked him, "Can I still enroll now?" and he handed me an application form.

So I went home and told my parents, "I've changed my mind," and turned down the offer from Yamano Beauty School and applied to Mode Gakuen instead. It was a close call, because if I'd been a week later, I would have had to pay the admission fee to Yamano Beauty School.

I learned the basics in the first and second years at Tokyo Mode Gakuen. I was in the design department, but I didn't expect to do sewing there. When I was given sewing tools, I asked, "What, you're going to do sewing too?" I've loved drawing since I was a child. I wanted to graduate in three years, and there was a girl I liked in the year above me at the time (laughs), so I took night classes in my second year and skipped a grade. However, from my third year onwards, I was busy with part-time work and didn't go to school very often.

The pair met as first-year students at Tokyo Mode Gakuen, later lived together in Sangenjaya, and are still friends today. The person on the right is one of the people who helped Kitamura start Hysteric Glamour, but we'll talk about that in a future article.

Profile

Nobuhiko Kitamura (Hysteric Glamour designer)

Born in Sangenjaya, Tokyo in 1962. Joined apparel manufacturer Ozone Community in 1984, and launched HYSTERIC GLAMOUR at the age of 21. Having been involved with music for over 40 years, he has many fans not only in Japan but all over the world, and is known for having close friendships with many musicians and artists.

Instagram @nobuhikokitamura , @hystericglamour_tokyo