Takashi Kumagai

5 QUESTIONS TO 熊谷隆志

“断捨離する前は1000個くらいあったんじゃないですか？”

Tell me about the time when you first started wearing hats.

I've always worn hats a lot in my styling work. My editors would say to me, "You wear too many hats, don't you?" I started wearing hats in earnest when I was about 33 and had a shaved head. I started surfing around that time, and had dreadlocks. But my hair absorbed water and was heavy, so when I went to Hawaii, I shaved it all off (laughs). After I shaved my head and felt lonely, I started wearing hats. At first, I bought a lot of Borsalino, and then I started looking for western hats that would go with Native American jewelry.

Who would you like to wear a hat?

For me, it's (Ernest) Hemingway. I don't know if he wore a hat, but I have an image of him wearing a hat in a film like "The Old Man and the Sea." And then there's movies. Don Corleone in "The Godfather," and actors like River Phoenix, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, and Matt Dillon. I imitated Brad Pitt's dungaree shirt and western hat style in "Thelma & Louise," and I'm influenced by the styles in movies of people my age or a little older than me. Basically, I like people who look good in clothes.

Please tell me what you pay attention to when you wear a hat.

The way I wear my hat is always with the brim up. Foreigners who like hats often tell me to wear my hat like this, but I say, "Shut up, it's like this," and I put it up (laughs). People in gangster movies wear their hats down, but Matt Dillon and Brad Pitt wear them up, so I guess I was influenced by them. I also care a lot about sweat stains and smells. So I wipe my head frequently, and I used to spray it with something like mint.

Please tell me about the hat you are wearing today.

This is a COLLABORATION between CA4LA and GDC. When I went to CA4LA for a meeting, the model that the director Akimoto (Nobuhiro) was wearing matched my image perfectly, so I said, "I'd like this one." I usually buy my hats overseas. I like to have my head size measured properly at the store before I buy it. I currently have about 200 hats, and about 500 if you include other items. But before I started decluttering, I think I had about 1,000. (laughs) Hats take up a lot of space, so I always buy hat boxes overseas.

What does a hat mean to your life?

やっぱり体の一部なんでしょうね。帽子を取るとアタマが寒く感じるんですよ。ゴルフ場でも昼飯の時に帽子を取るのは嫌だし、「帽子を取れ」と言われるような場所は好きじゃないんです。この先もカツラをかぶる人生じゃなさそうだし、一生帽子をかぶり続けそうですね。