Tokyo, Japan (CNN)There's something distinctly punk about Katsuya Kamo's aesthetic. His otherworldly headpieces, designed for some of the world's most revered fashion houses, seem to disregard the limits of millinery, often combine hair with unusual materials.
"Feathers, paper, butterflies, animals, everything," the Japanese hairstylist and makeup artist said in his Tokyo studio, gesturing to the examples surrounding him, including outtakes from his latest collection for designer Jun Takahashi's Undercover label.
Inside Katsuya Kamo's studio 01:38
On the runway, the butterfly-inspired Undercover designs -- each of which took a day to produce -- fluttered about the models' heads, making them appear half human, half insect.
But Kamo isn't just looking to shock; his is a quest to create pure beauty.
"If it's not that, then the end form cannot be complete."
A Katsuya Kamo headpiece for designer Junya Watanabe.
Three decades of innovation
Since 1996, Kamo has collaborated with Japanese designers Takahashi and Junya Watanabe on hair and makeup for their collections. His international breakthrough came in 2007, with his attention-grabbing looks for Watanabe's Autumn-Winter 2008 show. Wrapping models' heads entirely in cloth, Kamo transformed them into bulbous sculptures.
The show caught the attention of Stephen Gan, creative director of Harper's Bazaar's, who hired Kamo to style hair for a shoot with Karl Lagerfeld. Soon after, Lagerfeld booked Kamo for Chanel's pre-fall 2009 collection "Paris-Moscou," for which he crafted 50 braided hair crowns interwoven with pearls and metal accoutrements.
More collaborations with Chanel followed, including a series of flower headpieces crafted from paper for the brand's Spring-Summer 2009 couture show.
A model wearing Katsuya Kamo's headpiece for Chanel during a Spring-Summer 2009 Haute Couture collection.
Since then, Kamo's reputation has blossomed. Designers and stylists, from Haider Ackerman to Carine Roitfeld, have commissioned him for works.
Finding inspiration in the mundane
A Katsuya Kamo headpiece for 7000 magazine.
Like a mad scientist, 51-year-old Kamo spends nearly every day experimenting, toiling away in his lab with materials ranging from familiar (safety pins) to the decadent (stuffed birds and exotic silks).
Three decades' worth of work has been meticulously recorded in notebooks brimming with Polaroids, material scraps and sketches, but Kamo's biggest inspirations are found in the present, not the past.
"I'm always picking up something from the street," he explained. "Not books, not movies. Just from the street."
How remarkable the world must look through Kamo's eyes.
