The year 2020 had people spending more time in their homes than ever before. As a result, it also inspired plenty of people to spruce up their personal spaces. Custom rugs became trendy. Others took a deep dive into the world of vintage chairs from the likes Herman Miller, Knoll, and Vitra. But the reality is, not everyone has the proper living space or budget to own one of these beautifully crafted pieces. For those who love the look of a Panton chair, but can’t own one, 28-year-old designer Hayato Arai has created the perfect alternative.
Arai has fused two of his favorite hobbies, clothing and luxury furniture, to create unique workwear pants for Hayato, his eponymous label and one of Complex’s “Brands to Watch” making an appearance at ComplexLand this year (June 16-18). The designer’s interest in furniture began before the pandemic, though, sparked by the realization that now he could actually afford these particular items to construct his most ideal living space at this time in his life.
“I started before quarantine, but when you stay in the crib all you see is the furniture. It surrounds you,” says Arai, who notes he chose to start with workwear pants as the canvas for his creations because it’s what he would want to wear. In fact, he wears them every day. “The shapes are made for people’s bodies. The pants are made for people’s bodies too. It’s mixing those two to create beautiful shapes.”
Hayato’s first drop was a walnut-colored take on double knee workwear pants in November 2019. What set the bottoms apart from what you might cop from, say, Carhartt, was the pattern stitched across each panel. It was inspired by the signature wicker weave pattern found on Knoll’s Cesca chairs, which debuted in 1968 and were designed by architect Marcel Breuer.
After releasing the sequel, a black colorway in October 2020, Arai created a new furniture-inspired workwear pant with stitching derived from the curved look of Verner Panton’s plastic chairs. It debuted this past February in an orange color scheme with black stitching, a nod to the bright plastic colors that are a signature look of Panton chairs. The Panton Work Pant has since become available in two additional variations, cream with orange and cream with black stitching. Like all of Hayato’s releases thus far, both designs sold out in minutes.
While there are many styles he could reference with his designs, Arai says nostalgia has been a big inspiration thus far. “My grandma lives in Japan and still has a Cesca chair,” he says. Arai briefly lived in Japan as a child, and later the Czech Republic and Montreal before settling in New York City, where he currently operates his brand. “I thought it was a perfect combination, putting this pattern on workwear pants. That’s my favorite stuff, combining something from my childhood with workwear.”
Arai notes NIGO as one of the main people who sparked his interest in design. He grew up in the 2000s listening to rappers like Lil Wayne and Kanye West, two individuals who championed NIGO’s Bape heavily at the time. They would act as his gateway into the world that NIGO had cultivated. That passion eventually snowballed into what it is today with Hayato, Arai’s own opportunity to create a unique world and design language for his customers to engage with.
The brand is still in its early stages, but it isn’t the designer’s first experience in the fashion industry. After graduating from graphic design school at Inter-Dec in Montreal in 2015, he moved to New York City in 2016 where he would cut his teeth working behind the scenes for a local streetwear brand for roughly four years. Tasks included putting together tech packs and assisting with apparel design. He says the time with the brand, which he asked remain anonymous, showed him the inner workings of what it takes to fully operate one successfully. Arai’s time in New York eventually led him to meeting fellow local designer Eric Emanuel, who he still assists to this day by helping him create some of the bold patterns featured on his massively popular mesh shorts. He says working closely with Emanuel and seeing his continued success has been valuable.
“There’s a lot [I’ve learned from Emanuel]. It’s crazy how big it is now. I’ve never seen someone make mesh shorts this big before. That mentality, I respect that,” says Arai, who also produces his items in New York’s Garment District like Emanuel. “That’s something I learned from Eric, to have good communication with factories. It’s better to see them in person. It’s way easier.”
Along with assisting Emanuel and getting Hayato off the ground, Arai also helps run Miles, another up-and-coming streetwear brand out of New York City, alongside his partner Snapp. He categorizes Miles as a more traditional streetwear brand in comparison to his workwear-inspired solo venture. It has offered graphic T-shirts nodding to New York City, logo hoodies, accessories like totes, and even its own Bearbricks in the past.
But Hayato, Arai says, is his effort to make furniture more accessible through a medium that more people can consume. A lounge chair from Herman Miller can cost almost $5,000. His pants clock in right under the $200 mark. The brand’s logo, which can be seen stitched on the right pocket of each pair of pants, is even a clever flip of furniture designer Herman Miller’s logo made to look like the letter H. Not everyone might be in a situation to cop a Cesca chair for their apartment, but they are much more likely to rock a pair of pants that pays homage to one as a way to show their appreciation for it. For ComplexLand, Hayato will be giving customers another opportunity to do just that by releasing another colorway of his Panton Work Pants. This new variation is constructed of cream canvas with green contrast stitching and will retail at its usual price of $192.
“I tend to like heavy duck canvas and thick threads to make durable pants,” he says. “What I like about the Panton pants is that they are simple and subtle, but still unique. You can wear them everyday. I like items that create natural conversation with your friends. The natural colored fabric also ages well, so it’ll show your lifestyle.”
For now, Arai is keeping production numbers limited; each pair of pants takes roughly two months to produce. He’s focused on cementing Hayato’s core design language first. He wants to continue experimenting to establish what the perfect-fitting pants are, something that will look just as good on a person with shorter legs as it would on someone a bit taller. Still, he has plans to grow Hayato beyond just workwear pants (he’s currently developing jackets) and apparel in general. He wants to make his own furniture, and even collaborate with big names in the designer furniture industry, like Knoll or Herman Miller, in an official capacity. He’d love to see his pieces sold on SSENSE. Above all, he wants to see Hayato go global.
“I want to have my pants worldwide. People in France, people in Japan, people in England, people in Africa, I want them to wear my clothes and think they are beautiful,” says Arai. “Clothes make you happy. I want to make the pieces that make people happy, worldwide. That’s my goal.”
