commons&sense began from two questions: what is common sense, and what is a fashion magazine? The founder — born in Osaka, trained as a copywriter, then relocated to London where he worked as a graphic designer and campaign photographer — returned to Japan and launched the publication in 1997. It was, from the start, a fashion magazine unlike any other in Japan: conceptual where others were commercial, experimental where others were formulaic, and built on the conviction that the boundaries of what a fashion publication could be had barely been explored.
Nearly three decades later, commons&sense is distributed as an international fashion magazine in 28 cities across 15 countries. The founder serves simultaneously as editor-in-chief, publisher, and art director — a triple role that gives every issue a singular creative vision. His work is admired by designers, photographers, stylists, and fashion insiders worldwide, and his career has expanded beyond editorial creation into fashion consulting, campaign art direction, and event production. A companion title, commons&sense man, launched in 2006, extending the publication's aesthetic into menswear and male identity.
The bilingual A3-format publication — printed in English and Japanese — is as much a visual object as a magazine, designed for the coffee table as much as the bookshelf. Each issue is a creation born of its founding questions, and the answers, nearly thirty years on, keep changing. That is the point. commons&sense understands that the most interesting fashion magazines are the ones that never stop asking what a fashion magazine can be.