Fangophilia

Japanese designers have a reputation for pushing boundaries. And Fangophilia, a jewellery label which just launched last year, is a case in point.

It started as a line of silver-plated demonic fangs, and witchy fingers. But Taro Hanabusa, the designer, has quickly become better known for his custom jewellery designs. After taking a cast of his customers’ teeth, ears, nose or kneecaps – any part of the body, according to Fangophilia’s website - he creates bespoke pieces with a gothic-meets-high-fashion feel. Teeth, spikes and studs are his signatures, and there’s something scarily anatomical about them.

The effect can be slightly disturbing, but it’s eerily wearable at the same time. The label already has a cult following, and since January it’s been stocked in Dog – one of Tokyo’s most infamous boutiques, following incognito visits from Lady Gaga.

When you look at the way they’re cast, it suddenly makes sense that the designer, Taro Hanabusa, originally trained as a dentist. He still practises part-time, seeing patients when he’s not designing jewellery.

In an interview with Blouin Artinfo, Hanabusa explains that he was interested in the idea of ‘body modification’ long before he actually started the Fangophilia line. A fascination with tattoos and piercings, combined with his experience in dentistry castings, brought the idea about naturally, and explains the clinical, nearly medical, side to his designs.

It’s this seriousness that makes looking at his work feel slightly uncomfortable. There isn’t the same element of fantasy that we would usually expect from such decorative jewellery – it’s more reminiscent of actual medical procedures, albeit from some bygone era.

But Hanabusa somehow makes them more artistic than a simple parody of dentistry. The way his silver plates expose neat slivers of skin, or elongate hands with dramatic talons, is as beautiful as it is uncanny.

Fangophilia isn’t available in the UK right now – apart from a pop-up shop in Taiwan this month, I haven’t been able to find a current stockist outside of Japan – but it seems like it’s only a matter of time. Bloggers and design mags are starting to pick up on his unique collection, and it definitely has global appeal. It will be interesting to see how Hanabusa balances the bespoke side of his designs (it typically takes two weeks to fulfil an order, using custom casts of the wearer’s face) with their potential popularity.