Tomihiro Kono – the Japanese hairstylist and wig-maker making waves in our world. His bold ‘fancy wig’ creations are adored across the fashion industry, arguably reaching the pinnacle of avant-garde fashion when he worked with Björk to create a series of pieces for use on her album Fossura. 

Push came to shove when we heard this last accolade. Self-proclaimed Bjork fangirls, we knew we had to work with Kono. But if you think he’s doing something unusual, we thought we’d push it a little further – do the opposite thing. So we asked Kono to make us a series of wigs, but not for heads. For shoes. 

And he did. He made us three bespoke shoe-wigs, tailor-made for Amparo, Noor and Kimi.

Once upon a time, wigs existed to serve a purpose. Hiding hair loss or forming a costume, they were formed to meet a need – a requirement. But here in 2022, Japanese wig-designer Tomihiro Kono is pushing for the opposite thing. While his work embraces the same time-old transformative qualities, his wigs aren’t made for one set purpose. Instead, he’s created a new, genre-defying mode for self-expression. They’re for anyone, anywhere – even shoes – to wear exactly as they please.

In an array of dramatic shapes and bold colours, Kono’s wigs ignore the naturalistic stereotype of what it once meant to wear a ‘good’ wig. They’re wild and bold, hand-painted with outlandish patterns and prints previously reserved for fashion. 

To achieve this, he works without limits. “My design process tends to begin without thinking or planning too much,” Kono explains. “For clients I obviously research, but I like to start the process in an organic way. I make the lace foundation, knot the hair strands through it, then I colour, cut, and style.”

His inspirations are countless, turning to subcultures from across the globe and stretching far back throughout history. Kono references everything from Rococo curls through to Punk mohawks, and his eyes lit up when we told him the influence that Japanese New Wave cinema had on Miista AW22 – particularly Toshio Matsumoto’s Funeral Parade of Roses: “I really love that film,” he responded. 

The 1969 film explores masks – both literal and metaphorical – as tools for transformation, with the capacity to form entirely new identities with each mask change. Kono sees wigs in a similar light – so do we. They are a type of mask: a way for their wearers to take on entirely new guises. You’ll see we brought this idea to our shoot: even our shoes took on new character when they tried on their wig for size.

Kono instinctively applied this identity-switching concept to his Miista x Tomikono collaboration pieces, but he also embraced other elements from Funeral Parade of Roses. “One of the main images from the film is the lips,” Kono explains. “You’ll see I used them as a motif in one of the designs. But I was also inspired by the design of the shoes themselves. The balance of colour and pattern is so important.”

Like every wig Kono makes, his Miista pieces are made from natural hair. “You can colour, dye, and curl real hair,” he says. “The textures are much better.” 

And just like the rest, each piece was a labour of love. Granted, a wig for a shoe is less time-consuming to make, but their handmade nature means they still have that same quality and beauty of a full bespoke wig. “There’s not much difference from working on a human head,” Kono explains. “Maybe the size, because of course these were exclusively made to fit each Miista silhouette. So I guess these pieces could also be worn on the head if you like.”