IN A CAVERNOUS basement-style studio in Tokyo's hip Harajuku district, Jun Takahashi, the man some call the future of the Japanese fashion industry, is drawing a picture of a pistol. 'This is what we call an 'art jam session',' he says, through a cloud of smoke from an ever-present cigarette, passing the sketch to his friend, the Japanese-American artist Madsaki, who draws what looks like the US White House underneath Takahashi's original gun.
The picture spells out the letter 'T' and goes on the wall next to 'S' amid a jumble of pop-art references around the studio that include punk icon Iggy Pop, a wonky reproduction of The Last Supper and a life-sized model of a Star Wars storm trooper. The two have almost worked their way through the entire alphabet.
By Sunday, the product of these sessions will be on view at the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences in Mid-Levels, in what is Takahashi's first foray into the world of modern art.
Why Hong Kong? Takahashi says he 'feels close to' China. 'We are all Asians and we need to realise that despite our historical differences,' he says. At the moment, he believes the centre of Asian art is still Tokyo but that this will change. 'I think art in Asia will become very interesting.'
The slight, 52kg designer once sang lead vocals in a punk band called the Tokyo Sex Pistols, and many of the stylistic features of punk - irreverence, improvisation, the collective approach to creativity, and the recycling and mixing of cultural artefacts - still influence what he does. It is one reason why he has been called, not always complimentarily, a fashion DJ, sampling riffs from a grab-bag of styles and images.
'Spiritually, the punk aesthetic still has an impact on my work,' he says. 'Concretely, street fashion, high fashion and punk are all mixed up.'
