I have been a big fan of ADEAM since I was introduced to her collection earlier this year. I loved the combination of structured and fluid elements, lady like with an edge. It felt like something I hadn’t seen before. I called some in for a fitting with a client and they were even more beautiful in person. When I had the opportunity to meet Hanako Maeda a month ago when she was in Los Angeles showing her Spring/Summer collection, I fell even more in love. She is as sweet as can be, very smart and designing clothes that are interesting in their design, incorporating different textures and a delicious color palette. Hanako is no stranger to the fashion world. Her parents own a clothing line in Tokyo, where she was born, called Foxey…think Oscar de la Renta meets Michael Kors. The experience of growing up around fashion she describes as “impactful,” but when she went to study at Columbia, she chose to major in E commerce. This led her to an internship as an investment banker where she discovered that perhaps this wasn’t the career path for her and she switched her major to art history.
In her junior year she interned at Vogue for fashion legend, Andre Leon Talley. Hanako loved this experience, but realized that the editorial world was not for her and went on to intern at Phillip Lim where she became inspired to design. The idea of a group of people working towards one person vision as the team at Phillip Lim does, was so inspiring to her that she moved to Paris to study at Parsons. She moved back to Tokyo after she completed her studies and launched her collection ADEAM (her last name backwards) in 2012 at Tokyo Fashion Week. Having spent most of her life in New York (she moved there when she was 5), Hanako decided to move her studio to NY in the summer of 2012 to be closer to the garment district.
This past February, she showed during New York Fashion Week which she considers to draw more of a global audience. Her first season, she was exclusively sold at Saks Fifth Avenue where she sold out of all of her pieces. Not bad for a first season! This February, she will present her first ever runway show at New York Fashion Week. I found it very interesting that having a runway show is changing the way Hanako designs because when you show your clothes in a presentation the models are still, but in a runway show the models move, so you want the clothes to have movement as well. For the Fall season, Hanako has been reading a lot of Japanese literature for inspiration. I can’t wait to see how this translates. I will definitely be there in the front row cheering her on. Hanako has success written all over her. I can’t wait to see her star soar even higher!
