Mai Ikuzawa: The woman behind a sell-out TAG Heuer collaboration

Russell Sheldrake

If you’re into the automotive sports, there’s every chance you’ve seen the Team Ikuzawa branding before. Its evocative type has appeared across a plethora of collaborative products, and the brand itself has formed a tight-knit, passionate community of petrolheads. But we wanted to better understand the brand, and the woman behind it, Mai Ikuzawa. Mai has been at the centre of Japanese automotive and fashion culture since birth, and today finds herself working alongside some of the biggest brands in the world thanks to her endless creative energy and passion for the space.

Watch people may recognise the name Team Ikuzawa thanks to a collaboration with TAG Heuer and Bamford Watch Department. This white and red Carrera was an instant hit thanks to that amazing marriage of TAG Heuer, car racing, and streetwear that has always worked so well. We should warn you, we recorded this interview before this collaboration was announced, so there is no talk of it, but you might hear Mai drop a subtle hint at one point.

So how did Mai become such a natural in this, creative, automotive space? Well, she has her father to thank for that. Tetsu Ikuzawa was a famed Japanese racing driver, competing at the highest levels, although just missing out on an F1, in part, as Mai tells us, due to timing. “It was just the wrong era. He never faced racism, but even a Japanese manufacturer would not sign a Japanese driver” she told us.

Tetsu was not only famous for his fast times around the track, but his incredible sense of rather flamboyant style. While Mai says she grew up hating her dad’s fashion, she quickly understood why everyone loved it so much, and has now taken on the mantle of being a fashion icon in her own right.

As you can imagine with someone as creative as Mai, her conversation with Andrew is far-ranging, covering off all kinds of topics, from what it takes to become a member of Team Ikuzawa, to Andrew taking on the job of finding the perfect watch of Mai based on her car preferences. They even talk about their shared love of Subaru. This new Watches And podcast really does cover all basis.

You can find the full podcast now on all of our main channels, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. In case you missed it, you can find our previous episode with Usain Bolt here – and make sure you subscribe to never miss an episode.