Melbourne label Front Office is a doctor-turned-designer’s take on workwear
WORDS BY DAISY HENRY
“It’s about communicating modern life through small gestures in design.”
Melbourne-based designer Ken Sakata didn’t follow a traditional pathway into the fashion industry. Instead, his label (now called Front Office) began as a satirical side-project launched on April Fool’s Day while he was working full-time in healthcare.
Having spent his formative years training to be a surgeon and working on Covid response teams, Ken decided it was time to write out his Will. Feeling as though the next few decades of his life were already mapped out, he decided he needed a change.
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In 2022, Ken created an online persona, pretending to be a professional footballer for a made-up team called ‘Queensland Football Club’. He began selling merch for the club and his first drop sold out within just a few hours.
A couple of years later, in 2024, Ken decided to leave the medical industry and rebranded the label. “Front Office is closer to my baseline personality,” he explains. “It’s about communicating modern life through small gestures in design.”
Inspired by ’80s and ’90s workwear, corpcore and sportswear, Front Office is now known for its minimal and tailored designs, made with fabrics sourced from Japan and recovered materials from the European garment industry. “Building the brand from thin air over a couple of years has been surreal. It’s now a vehicle to meet interesting people, travel the world and live in a heady, abstract space,” Ken says.
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Hi Ken! Tell us about you. What’s your fashion background?
I don’t have a traditional fashion background, I’m a doctor. I started working in fashion two and half years ago with an art project that required some fashion design.
So how exactly did Front Office get started? Talk us through the process and the challenges.
Just after Covid, I made up a team called ‘Queensland Football Club’, which sold ironic merchandise. Initially, I was printing on blank garments but that soon led me to making cut-and-sew garments locally. Eventually, I got the skills and confidence to make a jump to designing contemporary clothes and I rebranded to Front Office in January 2024.
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How has your label evolved and what are you trying to achieve now?
When I was running ‘Queensland Football Club’, it was about being chaotic, naughty and subversive. ‘Front Office’ is closer to my baseline personality, something I’m much more comfortable doing long-term, maybe forever. It’s about communicating modern life through small gestures in design.
How would you describe Front Office to someone who’s never seen it before?
Front Office is ‘clothing for quiet spaces’. It’s a thoughtful take on ’80s and ’90s workwear, corpcore and sportswear.
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What are you most proud of in your work on your label?
Building the brand from thin air in just over a couple of years has been surreal. It’s now a vehicle to meet interesting people, travel the world and live in a heady, abstract space.
What do you wish you knew when you started?
Not to ask for permission or to optimise the best next step. I thought running the brand was going to be a measured ascent with a guidebook and a sherpa, but emotionally it has felt more like running naked and solo down a steep hill, trying to avoid trees.
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What do you think about the fashion industry needs to change?
Nothing needs to change! We are blessed with huge competitive advantages in this country we need to exploit. There are so many creative people, such close proximity to manufacturing partners in Asia and a growing want for thoughtful design.
Who are your dream Australian and New Zealand collaborators?
The National Gallery of Victoria and R.M. Williams.
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What music do you like working to?
The xx, Massive Attack and Nicholas Britell.
What labels are in your wardrobe right now?
A lot of Front Office samples for next year, Comoli, Graphpaper, vintage Carhartt from eBay.
How can we buy one of your pieces?
You can find us online. Next year we’ll be running pop-ups and eventually, a weekend store at the studio on Smith Street in Fitzroy.
Keep up with Front Office here.
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