Satoshi Kuwata

Satoshi Kuwata (born 1983 in Kyoto) is a Japanese fashion designer. In 2023, he was awarded the LVMH Prize for his work. He is based in Milan where he founded Setchu in 2020, a fashion brand that is inspired by Japanese and British fashion. He holds the position of creative director at his design firm Setchu.

Kuwata trained at Central Saint Martins in London and as a tailor's apprentice on Savile Row, and worked for Gareth Pugh, Edun, Givenchy and Golden Goose before founding Setchu in Milan in 2020. The label's name is taken from the Japanese phrase wayo setchu, which refers to a compromise between Japanese and Western styles.

Early life and education Kuwata was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1983. At the age of 21 he moved to London. He studied at Central Saint Martins before apprenticing on Savile Row. He arrived from Yawata, near Kyoto, with almost no English, and looked for work along Savile Row before being taken on by the tailoring house H. Huntsman & Sons. He later lived in New York City and Paris before settling in Milan. where he was part of the studio under Riccardo Tisci. The prize brought a grant of €400,000 and a year of mentoring from LVMH executives; the group had raised the main grant from €300,000 for the award's tenth edition, and Setchu was in its fifth season when it won. and in 2024 Fashion Asia Hong Kong included Setchu among its ten Asian Designers to Watch.

Kuwata presented his autumn/winter 2026 collection in January 2026 in Setchu's new Milan studio, taking the landscape and clothing of Greenland as its starting point; it was his third runway show and his second on the Milan men's schedule.

Design and materials His work incorporates convertible clothing such as bags that transform into skirts and coats that can become capes; as well as complex folded garments similar to origami forms. Two of his material innovations include the use of sugarcane waste to create a denim like fabric and inventing a type of washable cashmere wool, both of which are practical and sustainable.

Kuwata begins a design with paper, folding and cutting it to test three-dimensional shapes before moving to fabric on a mannequin, and describes himself as a tailor rather than a designer. Setchu's materials have included a "paper denim" combining cotton with Japanese washi paper, alongside Italian cashmere, leather and silk. He has named Issey Miyake and John Galliano among his influences, along with earlier technical innovators such as Mariano Fortuny and Madeleine Vionnet.