About Sean

By Olie Georgio

My longtime friend, Sean Kavanagh has finally released a book project that he has been working on for over a decade. Actually, it's a culmination of a lifetime of living and learning, aspiring and achieving. 'Tokyo Breathless Neon Love' available now direct -- through this site.

In my early teens in Prahran, I was less than an average skater, but I was around the bowl watching history go down. A lot of the guys that were at the top of their games - both street and vert - were real different to me in persona and style, but one guy that I could identify with, or see myself in was Sean.

A balance of introvert and extrovert, similar in looks in some ways, similar awkward energy.

In year 10, I went to John Gardener (High School) and Sean was there in a couple of year levels above. Although we didn't cross paths too much there, I definitely watched on as he took studio art seriously and dressed completely his own way, I followed those cues, he was an unknowing mentor.

Sean went on after high school to study fashion at RMIT - his clothing became more and more unique. During those late-90s times, I often saw him in the city wearing brightly-coloured, self-made spray jacket material trench coats.
Hard to miss. I respected that individuality.

Eventually he obscured off into Japan in the year 2000, chasing his dream to infiltrate the Harajuku fashion world.

Traveling was a little different back then, I don't recall knowing anyone who'd been there in any capacity. Sean's move was bold, and I'm sure there were plenty of doubters.

Around the same time I was living in Sydney, trying to animate and just living it up. One night sitting at the opera house I was bouncing ideas off Max Creasy - I wanted to start making animation independently and was looking at buying a decent video camera as a start. He suggested I go to Tokyo to buy it, as it would be a lot cheaper. I've always loved cities, big cities, I couldn't work out why I'd never thought of Tokyo - the world's biggest city.

That evening the seed was planted and a few years later I moved to Japan and spent the next 8 years living back and forth between Tokyo and Melbourne. Whenever I go to the Opera House I think about that... that conversation changed the course of my life.

When I first arrived in Tokyo, I met with Sean.

He'd already been living there for 4 years and had - against all odds (language, culture, experience, precedent) - managed to achieve his dream, working as a designer for one of Harajuku's most infamous labels.

Over many nights out roaming the streets together and meet ups over the next few years, he shed light on a hidden world, one he'd been inducted into as an anomaly, a total outsider.

Sean has power - of the mind, body and soul. He envisions his dreams and realises them. He was the same with skating, with martial arts, with fashion, with language, and generally anything he sets his mind to. I personally (as I'm sure you can tell by my words) see him as an icon of individuality.

He wrote this book a long time ago, and I've been pestering him over the last 5 or so years to get it out there, to share it, in any capacity. Finally he did. I'm honoured to be the first to receive a copy and to read it. It took me back to Japan, full escapism, and definitely filled in a lot of gaps in the mysterious life of Sean Kavanagh - my role-model.