Although 2026 has only just begun, it’s hard to ignore the heaviness that’s already marked this year. A single scroll through social media can reveal endless reasons to feel abysmal about the current state of affairs, especially in the United States. During times like these, it can be difficult to understand how we’re supposed to process it all. For some, like designer Jakarie Whitaker, the answer is through creating.

Whitaker is the founder of Hikari no Yami, an emerging fashion label based between New York and Tokyo. At just 25 years old, Whitaker is a four-time Virgil Abloh scholar, a CFDA scholarship recipient, and a Fashion Trust US finalist — all despite never having intended to pursue fashion in the first place.

His brand, which is described as a blending of Japanese design philosophy and African American heritage, has already released several collections, the latest being Chapter 10: Shiki. The title of Whitaker’s AW26 collection comes from Fuyumi Ono’s 1998 novel-turned-anime series of the same name, and in the brand’s own words, “confronts the moment where survival becomes rebellion”. With silhouettes inspired by both Japanese design and American streetwear, Whitaker’s most recent work seeks to make sense of the complicated world it’s been released into. As a “philosophical and aesthetic dissection of identity, chaos, and resistance against the system,” Shiki takes stabs at both the fashion industry and the state of American politics, leaving neither unscathed.

Below, we spoke to Whitaker about creating the collection, finding inspiration and stumbling into his current career path. 

Where did you grow up and how did you end up working in fashion?

Jakarie Whitaker: I grew up in Flint, Michigan. I started fashion pretty late, actually. I graduated from high school in 2019, around the Covid era. After I graduated, I took a gap year before [intending to] go into medicine and study pre-med. 

During that gap year, I got inspired by Virgil Abloh. Seeing the way he designed and combined different mediums to create a different way of looking at fashion, especially from the Black perspective, helped me translate myself into fashion in that sense.

After my gap year working at General Motors here in Flint, Michigan, I switched over to fashion design and philosophy at Clark Atlanta University. That’s when I got into the Virgil Abloh Post-Modern Scholarship and started actually researching a lot of my favourite brands to find my niche. That’s what led me to Japanese design and being able to combine that with the love I have for Virgil’s work. 

Did going to an HBCU influence your style or design aesthetic in any way?

Jakarie Whitaker: I think so, because it really helps me with the perspective of tackling that African American diaspora within my brand. I really do think it helped because I was able to study abroad during my last four semesters. It gave me the perfect balance of understanding design, but also philosophy from the Black perspective, especially the Black American perspective. That, and being able to travel abroad and learn the arts from Italy, Japan and Paris.

How would you describe the aesthetic of your brand today?

Jakarie Whitaker: I like to call it avant-garde streetwear or avant-garde deconstructed tailoring because it is a very conceptual brand. 

I wanted to relate that idea of vampires to what the current fashion industry is right now — draining all the emerging designers’ creativity, sucking us dry 

What was the inspiration behind this latest collection?

Jakarie Whitaker: The inspiration is a lot. Firstly, the title, Shiki, is basically an anime based on the concept of vampires. I wanted to relate that idea of vampires to what the current fashion industry is right now — draining all the emerging designers’ creativity, sucking us dry by having collection after collection. It also plays with this idea of expectations as far as who is right and who is wrong.

All the traditional standards of what a Hikari collection embodies is the philosophy of deciding your own fate, which is why I intertwined those red strings as one of the first looks. Fate, destiny, and desire. I also wanted to add in the punk rock aesthetic from Chapter 8, the season before this. The punk rock movement kind of de-establishes fashion. I think fashion today is going in a way of conservative, quiet luxury boringness, and I wanted to bring back that authentic touch of handmade upcycling and deconstruction to the modern day.

I love the vampire metaphor. You’ve also described this collection as confronting a ‘systemic plague.’ What does this plague represent to you?

Jakarie Whitaker: I think it’s many things. Firstly, who our president is today: a political plague. Then the fashion industry: a global plague of expectations from designers and how we’re supposed to be dressing and creating. I’m not saying this collection is the cure to the plague, but I do think we need to spotlight the idea that you have to box yourself into a certain type of conformity just to coexist with the rest of the fashion system.

I also read that this is the first collection of yours that includes colour. Can you tell me about the design process and the choices you made?

Jakarie Whitaker: Typically, every other Hikari collection has been black and white, sometimes grey, maybe a dash of tan. The black and white represent duality — Hikari Nomura translates to ‘Light of Darkness’ in Japanese. I always tend to keep it within that realm for philosophical purposes.

When playing with the colour red, I needed it to be a scarlet red. One reason was to tie in that aspect of the ‘red string of fate’ — that’s where the hand-knitted red pieces come in. All of those strings are dyed naturally red; when I was submerging it, it kind of felt like blood, and that’s where that vampire reference ties in. Red embodies passion, boldness, and decision-making. I wanted it to be organic, too. I didn’t want to just find red garments or have my factory make red pieces; I would rather naturally add them. On one of the dress shirts, there is acrylic paint near the neck like a vampire bite reference. On the parka, I hand-painted everything so you can feel the organicness of the red.

Moving on to some rapid-fire questions. What four designers are on your fashion Mount Rushmore?

Jakarie Whitaker: I would say Rei Kawakubo, Virgil Abloh, Martin Margiela, and I’m going to give it to Christian Dior.

If you could dress anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Jakarie Whitaker: I really love Rihanna. Let’s just say Rihanna. We love RiRi.

What’s the most ‘ran through’ item in your own wardrobe?

Jakarie Whitaker: A trench coat. It’s either my Hikari Nomura black leather trench coat, or I have this vintage Comme des Garçons staff coat that I wear everywhere.

If money is no object, where are you staging your first catwalk show?

Jakarie Whitaker: I have had a show, and I’m having one in February as well! But my dream destination – it has been done before, so it’s not really special – but I would do Zojoji Temple in Tokyo. I think that would be a super cool idea.

What fictional character do you relate to the most and why?

Jakarie Whitaker: Ooh, this is a hard question. I’m going to say Kakashi from Naruto.