Katsuya Kamo’s One-of-a-Kind Headpieces

Katsuya Kamo, a Japanese hairdresser and makeup artist, stands out in the fashion world thanks to one very specific talent: he creates unique headpieces. Fanciful, impressive, precious and often mysterious – if not alarming – these pieces have been alluring the fashion world for over twenty years, in Japan and beyond.

Unlike French stylist Charlie le Mindu, recognised as one of the masters of ‘haute coiffure’, Katsuya Jamo does not always use hair as his primary material. He often covers it. His creations include a pheasant balanced on a model’s head (for Junya Watanabe) or a heavy headdress made entirely from white paper and covered in barbed wire, camellias and grapes (a curious mix of wire netting, an artificial fruit bowl and Marie Antoinette’s wig, created for Chanel in 2009 and which has remained in the annals of the fashion house ever since).

Quiet and discreet in his personal life and known for being an introvert, Katsuya Kamo creates eye-catching objects which are the polar opposite of his own image. He works using materials which he gathers from anywhere and everywhere. A journalist for Le Monde, when invited to his home a few years ago, noted that his flat was full to the brim, containing a collection of little objects (bits of latex, dead leaves, insects, broken mirrors…). Any of these things might one day appear in one of his creations, of which he has now produced hundreds.