Niko Kawa is a 19-year-old content creator based out of San Diego, California, that has solidified an online presence with his infectious positivity and alluring transparency. Niko has rapidly become immersed in the world of fashion after he discovered his affinity for designing, creative directing, and writing. With hopes of emerging as a pioneer within the fashion industry, Niko aims to defy all archetypes and embrace individualism and originality.
In conversation, Niko shares that the virtual world offers more freedom and that freedom is what inspires him to take bigger risks. By consistently utilizing his creativity that is in perpetual orbit, Niko aims to expand his horizons into the field of editorial content.
What are your current aspirations?
NIKO KAWA: My fashion interests are drawn towards leading and creating; a current goal is to become an esteemed fashion designer that pushes boundaries and conventionality in the industry. I value the idea of becoming acclaimed; however, my efforts are focused on breaking new ground. Ultimately I want to cause a tipping point of sorts in the fashion world and desirably become a pioneer.
Would you describe your creativity as learned or innate?
NIKO KAWA: Definitely innate, I have always been an extremely emotional and artistic person, expressing myself every way I knew how, drawing, painting, sculpting, fashion, and cultivating bonsai trees. I see no border stopping me from expressing my emotions in creative forms. This transparency fuels my natural ability to create an artistic expression.
Speaking with free rein, what’s your take on the ever-evolving world of fashion?
NIKO KAWA: I never understood why people held onto things for so long or wouldn’t adapt their style to new trends. I think change is the most beautiful thing we can encourage. We see it in nature from evolution to our changing seasons and the metamorphosis in creatures like caterpillars and butterflies. Change is natural, beautiful, and all around us, why not encourage it in the fashion industry.
What creatives have influenced and shaped you as an individual?
NIKO KAWA: I have a huge appreciation for resourcefulness and outside-the-box thinking. Nicole McLaughlin, a designer on Instagram, executes this perfectly. I aspire to push boundaries the way she does in fashion. The way she brings the world of everyday objects and intertwines them as fashion garments is exactly the approach I want to have as a future designer. Her unconventionality is something I have enormous admiration for and inspires me as a designer.
When it comes to fashion, what is your driving force?
NIKO KAWA: My synesthesia. Synesthesia is a condition that causes a person to make involuntary connections between senses and emotions. For example, some people with auditory synesthesia can paint music. My synesthesia connects numbers, letters, and words to colors. And I thought that was it, but when I got into fashion I realized my synesthesia was far stronger. Just as when someone makes an outfit, they match colors, I would do the same, but for the colors that aren’t actually there. The shape, texture, and feel of each garment all resonated as a color in my head. It all came subconsciously, the composition of shapes and textures were just as visible and distinct as color palettes.
Art can take on many forms, which art form is most important to you at the moment?
NIKO KAWA: Fashion is the artistic environment I am most involved with, but the most important and influential has been my work with bonsais. Patiently growing, working, pruning, repotting, and meticulously shaping my 300 bonsai trees has taught me the most from any art form I have involved myself in. Sitting for hours a day with trees planted as early as 1840 has taught me time is crucial. These trees take decades to shape. The patience and appreciation needed to grow bonsais has carried over into my work as a fashion designer. Success is meticulous, you can’t grow a bonsai in a day and I shouldn’t expect to create a cornerstone of fashion in one either.
What differentiates the tangible world from the virtual one, especially in regards to fashion?
NIKO KAWA: Social media lets you escape some of the boundaries of the real world. You build your own identity, changing your profile picture, name, and pictures: you’re the sculptor. Now, that’s not to say you can’t be who you are in the real world, but rather the virtual world offers more freedom. This freedom is what inspires me to take bigger risks. You’re more bound to who you are physically and it’s harder to take those risks in the real world.
Make sure to follow Niko on Instagram and TikTok to keep up with his future ventures.
