How Hiroshi Fujiwara Made His Dream Collaboration a Reality (EXCLUSIVE)
Two things pushed Hiroshi Fujiwara, the Japanese streetwear pioneer behind the enigmatic project Fragment Design, to build a house during the ’90s: A hatred of exposed wiring and a love of Bang & Olufsen. “I wanted to get Bang & Olufsen’s integrated home sound system, and my friend told me, ‘Hiroshi, if you buy these speakers, you have to build a house because of the wiring system. It's really ugly if you have a wire on the wall,’” the designer says. “I didn't really realize how ugly cables are. I had to put them behind the wall and then connect every room, for which you have to build a house. So, I did."
There isn’t much from this era of Fujiwara’s life that still exists. His magazine column Last Orgy, a bible to all early Japanese streetwear fans, including BAPE’s NIGO and UNDERCOVER’s Jun Takahashi, ceased a long time ago. His various brands — such as Electric Cottage, a predecessor to Fragment which Fujiwara’s close friend Shawn Stussy reportedly helped name, and GOODENOUGH — aren’t around anymore. And his Tokyo store, Readymade, which exclusively stocked limited-edition collaborations, closed on the last day of the century: December 31, 1999. Still, Fujiwara lives in the same home. And when he walks into a Copenhagen hotel in early April for a chat, it’s clear that his Bang & Olufsen obsession is as intense as ever.
Fujiwara is dressed in a selection of his many creations: All-black Timberland x Fragment boat shoes, releasing at the end of the year; a denim jacket from his brand Sequel, customized with various pins (one reads “Snoopy for President”, to which Fujiwara laughs, “maybe I prefer Snoopy to Donald Trump”); and thick black Oakley x Fragment Design shades, which he doesn’t take off. And around his neck are Bang & Olufsen x Fragment Design Beoplay H100 headphones, part of a wider collection Fujiwara describes multiple times as his “dream collaboration.” Quite the statement coming from a man who's released enough collaborations to fill three coffee table books.
Fujiwara has been blasting his new favorite singer, Arlo Parks, from the $2,400 headphones, which follow a familiar Fragment Design formula. Like many of the project’s collaborations, this one is all-black and features the project’s lightning logo prominently on the outside. However, for Bang & Olufsen, this is uncharted territory as the glossy aluminium casing, the result of a “highly artisanal” anodization process followed by hand-polishing, is normally reserved for its top-of-the-line speakers, making this the material’s first time on a portable product.
A trio of speakers accompanies the headphones. There’s the $475 Beosound A1 3rd Gen, a compact portable speaker to which Fujiwara added a white Fragment logo beneath a black grille to make it more subtle. There’s the $7,100 Beosound Shape, where seven “tiles” combine into a flower-shaped wall-mounted speaker. Finally, there’s the $69,650, made‑to‑order, Japan-exclusive Beosystem 9000c setup. The latter consists of the Beosound 9000c, the century-old hi-fi company’s famed six-disk ‘90s CD player, paired with Beolab 28 loudspeakers, all made from that signature glossy aluminium.
This debut range will be available exclusively at a pop-up inside Isetan Department Store in Shinjuku, Tokyo, from May 20 before releasing globally on June 3. That means the hi-fi collection arrives in the same month as Fragment Designs’s “FOOTBALL IS NEVER BORING” range with F.C. Real Bristol, a handheld fan with CADO, and an exclusive A.P.C. raw denim set. Busy times! Then again, Fragment’s sole purpose is to release collaborations.
“Fragment is like a brand, but we don't make anything,” explains Fujiwara. Instead, its only output is co-branded versions of other brands' products, from Nike sneakers to gaming laptops, all of which become instantly more valuable as soon as they have a co-sign from this titan of streetwear. “It's difficult to explain,” Fujiwara continues, “so I don't really explain it. ‘You don't need to know’ is what I say.”
At any one time, Fujiwara is planning five to ten collaborative projects. But how does he choose them? And what makes a good partnership? “Respect,” Fujiwara says immediately, before pondering a little. “Some people simply want to use the logo, while others may have such a strong point of view that they want to do things entirely their own way. But for me, collaboration is about having conversations — understanding what they want, sharing what I want, and meeting somewhere in the middle.”
And normally, when the 62-year-old likes something, people follow. Fujiwara’s been a tastemaker since the ’80s, when he was one of the first DJs to bring hip-hop from New York to Japan. He got a tip about the fledgling hip-hop scene from Malcolm McLaren after befriending him and his then-girlfriend, Vivienne Westwood, in London. As well as returning to Tokyo with records, he started bringing clothes and memorabilia back from his trips, which led to him eventually making his own garments. The rest, as they say, is history. They don’t call him the “godfather of streetwear” for nothing.
Today, the designer still spends plenty of time on the road. “I'm traveling a lot. Meeting people, even just having a cup of tea, I think is really important,” he says. A few weeks before coming to Copenhagen, he was in Las Vegas, which he found “interesting” despite not being into gambling. For him, the highlight of the trip was the “crazy” and “amazing” Las Vegas Sphere.
He’s also still working on ample side projects — like his solo music (he’s hoping to release a new album next year), his newest retail venture, and producing a book about the history of record stores in Shibuya — whilst overseeing Fragment’s ample collections. And don’t think for a minute that just because he’s now landed his dream collaboration, he’ll be shifting his focus away from collabs: “I hope we can continue. I have more ideas for Bang & Olufsen,” he says. “I really like working. I like doing something all the time.”
Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit HS Shopping for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.
