Perhaps it is time to stop calling the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami a “hermit”.
In the last few years he has become a radio show host and now he is transforming himself into an iconic figure in the fashion world, collaborating with a well-known label on his own T-shirt line.
The eight T-shirts – which went on sale in mid-March – feature all the author’s favourites: cats, birds, records, people sitting in bars (but not ears, which he has shown he is fascinated by).
Haruki Murakami even gave an interview to Uniqlo, with whom he is collaborating for this series, as The Guardian notes, giving details of his own fashion preferences:
“I try to wear simple clothes, the simpler the better. Jeans and a T-shirt, with a sweatshirt or sweater. Since I don’t appear in an office, I can wear anything I like.
But I always end up wearing the same ones. I’m not sure I can say why this is happening.”
He talked about a lot of things. The reason why she always wears a tie when she lives in Italy – “you can get those stern looks if you don’t” she says – to what she thinks makes someone stylish – “I think it’s great if one can make everyday clothes look comfortable” stresses.
He also revealed his habit of always carrying a second pair of trousers with him (he got the idea from novelist Komimasa Tanaka, who shares Murakami’s love of shorts).
“I was once invited to a traditional restaurant in Ginza (Tokyo’s famous district) but when I showed up dressed like this, the manager who greets customers stopped me at the door and said ‘No shorts allowed…’ Luckily, I always put a pair of comfortable pants in my bag for such occasions, so I wore them over my shorts and things came together. The manager couldn’t believe his eyes.” he narrated.
Those who don’t think that their curiosity about Murakami’s wardrobe was satisfied with his interview with Uniqlo on the occasion of his T-shirt line, should be patient until November when “Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love” will be released.
In it, “the lonely, as everyone knows, novelist” will show off his T-shirts, “including some that are gems like the one with Springsteen at the Broadway show in New York and the one from the Beach Boys concert in Honolulu to the one that inspired his beloved short story “Tony Takitani” (p.It was also made into a film in 2004 by Jun Ichikawa),” notes Murakami’s American publisher, Knopf Publishing.
“Accompanied by short, candid texts, translated into English for the first time, these photographs reveal much about Murakami’s multi-faceted and brilliantly eccentric persona,” he adds.
