Biography

Jum Nakao is a fashion designer and a creation director, Brazilian and grandson of Japanese. He lives in the city of São Paulo where his atelier is located.
Firstly, he believed that the support of his work could be electronics and computing, but he quitted this sector for considering the formal studies far too distant from human sight.

It was in fashion that Jum realized the possibility of this approach and started his studies in 1984. In 1988, he took licensure in Plastic Arts at Faculdade Armando Álvares Penteado and, in 1989, academic extension program in History of Garment at Instituto de Museologia de São Paulo [Institute of Museology of São Paulo] and History of Fashion at SENAC. In 1996, he was considered as the great revelation at the Phytoervas Fashion 6th Edition (fashion event for new talents) and took over the job of Style Director at one of the largest fashion companies in Brazil, Zoomp, where he worked for six years. He was invited by Du Pont, in 2002, to be the partner fashion designer in the Hotel Lycra International Project. In 2003, unprecedentedly, a fashion work was part of an Art and Photography Exhibition in Brazil – Imagética – where a space of honor was destined to an installation that narrated the process of one of his collections – Tribute to Brothers Quay. The works performed in the graphic arts area by the design studio Lobo – books: Future Kitsch and Tribute to Brothers Quay – achieved awards and international like: The One Show (USA), “How Design” (USA), “Creative Review” (England) and ADG (Brazil).

In 2004, the Banco do Brasil requested a campaign to tighten ties with art, fashion, cinema and dancing. In this project, there is the participation of directors of art, photography, advertising and dancing companies. Jum Nakao is the fashion designer invited for Concept and Models Design. In the same year, he signed a contract as a Creative director of one of the Brazilian’s most traditional women fashion companies: VIVAVIDA. For the first time in history, in 2004, NIKE, a giant from the sports and garment segment– the highest overall billing – established worldwide a contract with a designer for a premium line: JUM NAKAO for NIKE. He was even invited by arts, education and industry institutions to be the project’s Creative Counselor: Instituto Brasil de Arte e Moda. He presented in June 2004, at São Paulo Fashion Week, a performance in which, at the parade’s end, the models tore elaborate garments made of vegetal paper manufactured during an over-700-hour work. Soon after the parade, he participated in the Exhibition “arte e mercado” [“art and market”], at Galeria Vermelho, in São Paulo, with the work “fonte dos desejos” [well of wishes].

In 2005, invited by the director Luiz Fernando Carvalho, the fashion designer participated in the micro-series Hoje é dia de Maria, on TV Globo, accounting for the conception and creation of a Real Court. In the same year, Jum launches, in the São Paulo Fashion Week’s general schedule, the book and documentary A Costura do invisível [Invisible sewing], accomplished from the Summer 2004’s parade references, published by the SENAC’s Publishing Companies. In June 2005, he paraded and exhibited in Paris at Galeries Lafayette during the celebrations of the Brazilian Year in France. In the celebration of ten years of fashion in Brazil, through São Paulo Fashion Week, his work “a costura do invisível” is paid homage as the decade’s fashion parade. In August 2005, unprecedentedly, Fashion started to be part of the Cultural Exhibitions in Brazil and Jum Nakao was invited for the conception and execution of the exhibition “Conflitos e Caminhos”. Jum presents several lectures throughout the country about the creative process.In 2005, Jum Nakao began to sign the collections for brazilian former number one tennis player Guga Kuerten. In partnership with Curtlo – a adventure’s packs & bags label – he launched in 2006 a collection, Curtlo by Jum Nakao, which was selected for the I Brazilian Biennial of Design. In January 2006, he was invited by the international curator Anne Zazzo, from Galliera – Fashion Museum of Paris, to be part of the International Exhibition that gather the most representative fashionable works from the entirely 20th century until today. In July of the same year, Nakao launched the collection OXTO – JUM NAKAO. In 2006, he carried out the creative direction of the Opera Kseni by Jocy de Oliveira. By invitation of the Brazilian Museum of Art, Nakao conceived the scenography of the exhibitions GRAN SERA and JOURNEYS. Since 2006 Jum coordinates the new talents at CFW.

In 2007 he exhibited REVOLVER at MON – Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Brazilian Design at Itamarty Palace, Urban Sightseeing on Transitory Livings at National Museum, What eyes can’t see on SESC. In 2008 The Enchanted World of Jum Nakao is presented at The New Dowse Museum. His work, luxdelix, is selected by Japanese curator Yuko Hasegawa from MOT – Contemporary Art Museum from Japan – to be part of the international exhibition when lives become form held in 2008 at São Paulo. Also in 2010, by invitation of SPDC (São Paulo Dance Company) develops the costumes of the spectacle THE DOUBLE. His installation and performance Wearable Vestiges, produced by Cinnamon communication and realization of Centro Cultural Banco do Brazil São Paulo, was held in June 2010 during the 20th edition of SPFW, which becomes a landmark in the Art and Fashion mediation. In November 2010, at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, Jum integrates the project Brasilidades and install at MAM – Museum of Modern Art – Rio de Janeiro’s his work The Dream of Darcy. By invitation of Sindmóveis, he carries out the Salon Design 2011 space-design in Bento Gonçalves House in Brazil, the most important Brazilian Furniture Fair.

In 2012 Jum was honored at the twenty-sixth edition of Casa Cor and he conceives the Jum Nakao’s space. During Dragon Fashion 2012, Jum launched the Reality Project with Senac partnership, when for the first time in history a whole fashion collection is developed in real time during a fashion week. At the launch of the new Senac corporate identity he is invited to conceive the space of Senac Publishers in the Book Biennial Fair. At the London Olympics 2012 closing ceremonies, Jum is the designer of the Brazilian Ceremony Presentation. He exhibits in 2012 at Somerset House in London his work Transportable Memories, Boxed Dreams. In October 2012, he takes part of the opening of the Exhibition Futurotextiles at the ECIT (European Center for the Innovative Textiles) in Lille, France with his work Cloud Dress. He launches in 2013 the furniture collection Schuster – Jum Nakao.

Jum presents several lectures and workshops throughout the world about the creative process. www.jumnakao.com.br
In his production, Jum Nakao is able to combine the digital technology resources with the refinement of unique handmade garments, like the meeting, in a suspense and fairy tales environment, between the elaborate fashion from the XIX century and the playful universe of the Playmobil dolls.

As Lautréamont has once said, which has become a surrealistic slogan, “Beautiful like the meeting between a sewing machine and an umbrella over a dissection table”. Dissecting the world, Jum Nakao sews the unforeseen.