Mikio Sakabe is a designer, a teacher, and an experimenter. He runs two labels, MIKIOSAKABE and the footwear brand grounds, creating style that comes to life from Tokyo to the world. He is also a mentor for young Japanese designers, founding MeSchool, a fashion school that provides the same education opportunities in Japan that have been historically limited to Europe.
interview by Abraham Chabon
In a cold, concrete garage, buried behind metal fences and dusty staircases dimly lit by glowing exit signs, a crowd gathered on thin benches. Gold and silver emergency blankets distributed upon entry caught and refracted the light from camera flashes and the fluorescent whites that beamed from above. With the shrieks of a piano and the hums of a deep bass, the grounds Fall/Winter 25-26 show began.
grounds is known for its avant-garde and vibrant designs. Shoe’s understated uppers burst into large, cloud-like soles — a rejection of expectations and mass-market footwear. Sakabe has said he wants to “defy gravity.” With grounds, this has two meanings: the inflated, bubbling soles let the wearer float above roads and floors, but in fashion, gravity is not only physical, gravity is the pull of trends, the temptation to do what’s expected. Sakabe resists this, breaking new ground.
Sakabe continues his experimentation with his latest collection by taking the brand in a new direction. Previously, grounds could be best described as playful, fantastical. But in that sub-level garage the collection was industrial, festering, wonderfully unconventional, and pushing the limits of footwear. Styled by Betsy Johnson, the models began to march down the runway. The shoes where violently oversized, rubber layered on rubber, shoe melting with shoe, the bulbous clouds signature to grounds’ designs erupted out from under thin socks. Cables hung off from shoes like bungie cords wrapped around luggage. Leg warmers scrunched onto sneakers, and padded high socks wrapped around legs like medieval armor. There where large rubber soles like the treads on a tank, and some toe boxes curled upwards like a jester's boots.
The clothes were just as unconventional. Flowing wide legs spilled onto shoes, shoulder pads jutted dramatically from coats. Leather gloves, stacked belts, and oversized sunglasses adorned models with matted hair. Everything was unusual, dark — a collision of industrial and organic — yet, true to Sakabe’s touch, remarkably fun.
I caught up with Sakabe after the show for an interview.
ABRAHAM CHABON: How do you continue to innovate and push boundaries in an industry that not only constantly changes, but changes so quickly?
MIKIO SAKABE: I never start with the design of the shoes or clothes, I think about what will be the next experience, what's the future of the human being, what can be different, what will become interesting, what will be humor in the future.
CHABON: Previously you experimented with 3D printed shoes and clothes. With this collection, you continue this DNA of experimentation with materials. What draws you to that?
SAKABE: For me, the process of design is experimentation, not only using the existing ways of the making. I want to be an experimenter. If we try new methods then we can make new types of shoes.
CHABON: How is the process of designing footwear different from designing clothing?
SAKABE: I try to put away that relationship. I think I am a little bit of an architect. An architect of fashion, both shoes and clothes.
CHABON: This collection is different from things you've done before. What were your motivations for moving in this direction?
SAKABE: I want to be always changing. With this, I just wanted to make more. More movement, more power, energy from the underground. That was a new feeling I wanted to try.
CHABON: How do you balance the things you are working on and continue to put your best effort into everything?
SAKABE: Even busy people can be more busy. There is much more I want to be busy with.
CHABON: You talk about learning from others, from Walter Van Bierendock to everyday people you see in the street, how do you find inspiration?
SAKABE: I'm inspired by everything, not only fashion, I am inspired by an ordinary day.
CHABON: What role did Betsy Johnson play for you as a collaborator?
SAKABE: So much, because she has a really different way to design. So, it was very exciting because I cannot be like her. I want surprises, I surprised her, and she would surprise me.
CHABON: At MeSchool you are a teacher and a mentor, do you think you have learned from your students as well?
SAKABE: Yes, so much. It is 50/50. I learn as much as I teach. Young people can show you new ways to look at things, they know the world differently, they can show you new ways to know fashion.
CHABON: Is there anything you want to talk about with this collection, things you want people to know?
SAKABE: I don't want to tell things. I hope people feel something from it, and then they will know what it means.
