AYA DESIGN

MINEO YAMAGUCHI – Designer Profile
Diverse and serene luxury, where primitive art and Japonism are interwoven with Savile Row modernism—this is the signature of Mineo Yamaguchi, founder and designer of AYA Inc. His collections reflect a bold yet meditative aesthetic, produced entirely in-house by MFA-qualified designers and craftspeople trained at a historic Japanese designer’s brand.

Mineo Yamaguchi is a Japanese designer, researcher, and entrepreneur whose career spans global fashion houses including Comme des Garçons and Li & Fung Group subsidiary. He holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Design and founded AYA Inc. in 2022, a design company with its own sewing factory and a mission to revitalize declining regional industries through fashion.

AYA DESIGN, the prêt-à-porter label under AYA Inc., merges high-performance recycled materials with artisan techniques, developed in collaboration with major Japanese converters and research institutions. The brand contributes to a circular economy, offering comprehensive design from material innovation to garment production.

Yamaguchi is not only a designer and entrepreneur but also an active researcher in art and design, having presented papers at academic societies in Japan. His design philosophy, "The past stands before the future," draws inspiration from the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and the architectural concepts of Mies van der Rohe.

By exploring the intersection of timeless, classical cutting techniques and next-generation tailoring, he creates a modern dress code that highlights a witty esprit. His work defines a beautiful, intellectual persona for a new era of humanity, blending scholarly rigor with avant-garde aesthetics.

AYA Inc. represents a new ecosystem in fashion—symbolized by the word “AYA,” which refers both to twill weave and human connection. Through this lens, Yamaguchi continues to build a globally conscious brand rooted in Japanese avant-garde engineering and local craftsmanship.