You may know him as an actor, director, writer, or even as the eccentric host of Takeshi’s Castle. However, Takeshi Kitano is also a subtle yet significant style figure. Throughout his career, Beat Takeshi has crafted his own anti-hero aesthetic and repeatedly demonstrated his distinctive sense of style.
The anti-hero aesthetic
It is especially within his movies that Takeshi was able to express his visual aesthetic, based on a mix of references of his world growing up in a working-class environment looking up to yakuza gangs in the streets.
As an actor and then director, Takeshi Kitano’s major roles are deeply rooted in the exploration of the anti-hero, a figure that is often morally ambiguous, flawed, and detached from traditional ideals of heroism. Kitano’s characters reflect the gritty realities of urban life and the allure of rebellion against societal norms.

The fashion associated with these roles — sharp suits, understated yet authoritative silhouettes, and minimalist color palettes — mirrors the restrained elegance of the yakuza, blending toughness with an almost poetic sense of melancholy.
The simplicity of the suits and the recurring muted tones in his films give Kitano’s characters an air of cool detachment, emphasizing the anti-hero’s isolation and self-reliance. These visual choices have contributed to a broader cultural fascination with the “yakuza chic” aesthetic, which fuses traditional Japanese tailoring with the darker, rebellious undertones associated with the yakuza lifestyle.
And then there was Yohji Yamamoto

If he has worked with several designers (Issey Miyake or Rei Kawakubo to name a few), it is with the godfather of avant-garde Japanese fashion design, Yohji Yamamoto, that Takeshi Kitano will build the strongest relationship. Together they will deepen Takeshi’s persona, embodying a certain cool detachment and stoicism.
Together they will build the famous yakuza black sleek Japanese suits, the camp-collar white shirt and pitch-black oval sunglasses look of Kitano in Brother but also the magnificent and colorful costumes of the bunraku theater inspired movie Dolls.

A lasting influence
Even recently, Takeshi Kitano continues to inspire as he appears in Loewe Jonathan Anderson’s 2022 campaign in collaboration with Harajuku retailer GR8, sitting down to a game of Mahjong in what appears to be a Tokyo nightclub an abstract black and blue panelled shirt.
Kitano’s influence on fashion, then, is not just about the clothing, but about a broader sense of non-conformity and understated rebellion that has made the anti-hero look both timeless and influential in contemporary fashion.
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