Yu Fukumoto

Born in Australia and raised between Oxford, U.K., and Japan, Yu Fukumoto completed a bachelor's degree in management in Osaka before moving to London in 2000 for a fashion foundation course at Central Saint Martins. In 2008, Fukumoto graduated with a master's degree in fashion from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, and received both the Scabal and Lee Make History awards for his final collection. In late 2008 and early 2009, Fukumoto interned at Thom Browne in New York, then moved back to Japan to design for Writtenafterwords and lecture at Vantan Design Institute in Tokyo. He returned to Thom Browne as a fabric buyer/production manager and women's designer before assuming his current role for the brand as design director of fabrics.