At the upcoming Pitti Uomo, a new brand from a famous designer will debut on the catwalk It's DSM Kei Ninomiya, the new line by the creative director that shows in Paris

In recent years Kei Ninomiya has become one of the most interesting and conceptual talents on the contemporary scene. His brand Noir Kei Ninomiya, which is part of the extended Comme des Garçons family, is one of the most highly anticipated appointments during Paris Fashion Week. The brand’s products enjoy an excellent reputation and, above all, its business appears to be thriving. This is confirmed by the fact that, on the occasion of the upcoming Pitti Uomo, a new line designed by him will be presented in Florence: DSM Kei Ninomiya, which will incidentally also be the first in-house brand of Dover Street Market.

But let’s take a closer look at the news.

A new line

Kei Ninomiya, who is 42 years old, did not follow a conventional career path. His first degree, obtained in Tokyo, was in French Literature. After these initial studies, the future designer moved to Antwerp to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and later joined Comme des Garçons as a pattern maker, a role reserved only for the highest talents in Rei Kawakubo’s house. The brand he is famous for, Noir Kei Ninomiya, was founded in 2012 but has only been showing in Paris since 2019 — which is why it still feels “new” to many industry insiders.

Following the success of his brand, which is part of the Comme des Garçons family through the company CdG International and is distributed by Dover Street Market (which has a natural connection with the company but does not own the brand itself), Ninomiya has been appointed to head Dover Street Market’s first official in-house brand. The brand debuted with a lookbook last June and has a more commercial vocation, greater accessibility, and a broader target audience. This is the very first time Dover Street Market has owned its own brand, making Ninomiya’s appointment particularly significant.

Unlike Noir Kei Ninomiya, which will remain hyper-experimental and extreme, the new DSM Kei Ninomiya has been described as a genderless project designed for all ages. The new brand will make its runway debut at Pitti, but it is expected to operate differently from a traditional fashion brand. It has been announced that collections may vary in scale and target, that there will sometimes be only product-focused capsules, at other times collaborations, and that there will be no fixed or predetermined ties to the official fashion calendar.