[ixi:z] was a trendy Japanese fashion line from the 80s that happened to include some stationery and accessories. It was all the rage as I was growing up in Singapore – every teenager wanted to own at least one [ixi:z] item: a shirt, a pen, a wallet, etc. It was as hot as Swatch when it debuted. Friends would chip in to buy such branded items as birthday gifts. The brand went defunct in the mid-1990s.
While it was active, [ixi:z] partnered with Platinum to produce their line-up of pens and pencils. Platinum’s former company milestones page lists this collaboration as being from 1981:
What’s interesting is that some of these pen and pencil designs originate from Parafernalia of Italy. e.g. the Linea leadholder was adapted for a 0.5mm MP and BP. And the Helite from 1979 was adapted wholesale for an [ixi:z] branded MP.
Whether Platinum officially had a cross-licensing agreement with Parafernalia is a mystery. For one thing, Platinum in that era was basically getting all of their MPs developed and produced by Kotobuki… Who knows which company reached out to whom in the first place?
Here are some of the [ixi:z] designs I have managed to collect:
Interestingly, [ixi:z] was revived back in 2019 by entrepreneur Eugene Ow Yong. He had purchased the rights to the name and started producing clothing and some stationery and accessories. Unfortunately, from what I can see in stores, the new designs are very much a pastiche, with cut and paste depictions of old items and oversized logos. The new pens (no pencils) looked cheap and unworthy. Sad.