Mai Ikuzawa concedes that white denim is maybe not the most effective factor to put on when oil, grease and racing gas are throughout. However she didn’t need her capsule clothes assortment – launched along with the American artist Daniel Arsham at Goodwood Revival earlier in 2024 and now on-line – to be the standard motoring merchandise, which tends to imply plenty of baseball caps.

‘I wished one thing correctly high-end, particularly since Japanese-made merchandise are nonetheless recognised for his or her craft and high quality,’ she says. ‘It was dangerous sufficient with all of the mud [at the UK motoring event this year], with me freaking out about my brand-new Nikes.’

Ikuzawa comes from prime motoring inventory – she is the daughter of Tetsu Ikuzawa, the Japanese former racing driver and racing group supervisor, the primary Japanese driver to compete in European championships (key years being from the late Sixties by means of to the Eighties), and a person appreciated for each his private type and the daring crimson graphics, crane emblem and typography he designed as his racing colors.

It’s these – filtered by means of Arsham’s lens – that grace the likes of trunk baggage, stadium and varsity jackets and long-sleeve T-shirts within the streetwear-oriented Workforce Ikuzawa assortment, which Mai Ikuzawa and Arsham unveiled alongside a Porsche 904 GTS in bespoke livery, one set to make appearances at varied motoring occasions throughout 2025, together with The Ice at St Moritz in February.

‘Different groups stated they’d by no means seen something prefer it [when my father unveiled the designs],’ says Mai Ikuzawa, who’s now slowly reviving the Workforce Ikuzawa archive – notably its documentary images, racing overalls and a variety of classic Porsches – and operates a model consultancy. This, Bow Wow Worldwide, specialises in advising automotive firms reminiscent of Rolls-Royce, BMW, Aston Martin and the Venturi Grand Prix Workforce on their way of life methods

‘[With Team Ikuzawa] there was a mixture of style and artwork that again then which was very uncommon in motorsports,’ she provides. ‘Clearly I don’t suppose I’d have been so into type or vehicles with out his affect. I’d be given quite a lot of toy vehicles, go motor crossing. It was the sort of brainwashing I now put my very own youngsters by means of. However [years later] there’s nonetheless an aesthetic aspect to automotive tradition that’s under-explored.’

Ikuzawa, who additionally launched a restricted version watch in collaboration with Tag Heuer final 12 months and is now engaged on a second capsule assortment, argues that the motorsports world has but to efficiently bridge the hole with luxurious way of life: ‘Some partnerships really feel a little bit pressured, as if the 2 worlds don’t but perceive one another but,’ the skilled stunt driver argues. Maybe rectifying this, she suggests, may be a method for the trade to embrace rising curiosity in vehicles amongst ladies.

‘It’s fairly disappointing to me to see how ladies are nonetheless excluded from the automotive world. Go to a [luxury] automotive dealership and also you’ll expertise an incredible quantity of sexism – the belief that you just have to be somebody’s girlfriend,’ says Ikuzawa, who additionally considers herself a champion for Japan’s ‘ignored’ automotive tradition (‘Ask individuals to call cool vehicles and, unfairly, not many individuals will cite the likes of Nissan,’ she notes).

‘Possibly it’s as a result of a automotive is such an ego-driven product for a lot of males. However there must be extra ladies in motorsport and automotive tradition usually. And a technique in is much less emphasis on engine elements and extra on the type and the sense of journey that vehicles embody. There’s a softer method for automotive tradition to be introduced, and that’s what I’d prefer to pursue.’

Team Ikuzawa, @TeamIkuzawa