Upon opening his store Nowhere in Harajuku, Japanese streetwear legend Hiroshi Fujiwara trusted Takahashi and NIGO-Fujiwara’s pupil and Takahashi’s classmate-to run the shop. Soon enough the brand was fulfilling orders for notable Japanese shops like Billy and Milk Boy. In its first years, Undercover primarily focused on tees and vintage garments that Takahashi would customize with studs and patches. Takahashi left the show feeling so inspired that, along with classmate Hinori Ichinose, he founded Undercover. Takahashi was unsure of what career he wanted to pursue when he was dragged to a Comme des Garçons show by a friend. While enrolled in college, Takahashi also played in the Tokyo Sex Pistols, a Sex Pistols cover band. In 1988, Takahashi enrolled in the Bunka College of Fashion. With Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto soon following, the fashion world began to see Tokyo as a breeding ground for talent. A significant turning point for Japan’s youth was watching the rise of Comme des Garçons, helmed by Rei Kawakubo, as the brand had its inaugural runway show in 1981. By the mid-’80s, rock had a huge presence in Tokyo, which in turn influenced the youth of Japan. The formerly insular nation was becoming heavily influenced by the United States and western culture. Takahashi was one of many children who watched Japan change drastically before his eyes as a child. Undercover was founded by Jun Takahashi, who was born in 1969 in the small village of Kiryu, Japan. “I think it’s really interesting to see everyone is so obsessed with the ’90s and 2000s right now and looking back at the past,” he went on, when they should be asking “will we be there tomorrow and what will we leave for the next generation?” It’s a good question.Over the past 30 years, Undercover has accomplished feats few other brands can claim. If the Balmain show’s venue was about letting everyone in (or everyone who could get a ticket, via donations to (RED) and the global fund to fight pandemics), the show itself was, he said backstage, a reflection of his anxiety about the future and the climate crisis and “a love letter to my planet, to the world.” Until they finally did, in an explosion of wildflower prints in crumpled, roughly ruffled silks of many colors, collaged organically together and climbing the body like vines.įlorals can seem cloying and sweet (and clichéd, especially when you’re talking about spring), but these were more like a glorious statement of faith and nature’s messy promise of renewal. Then came a warm-up jacket encrusted in cobalt blue paillettes, which in turn gave way to blush pink, and then enveloping oversize cotton separates - jackets, shirts and pants - in mint green and butter yellow, caramel and dove gray, as though the clothes were coming back to life. The way the designers trapped a simple white shirtdress under a net tank, so it was crushed into unplanned folds, or layered a wrinkled silk duvet dress over a button-up shirt and wrapped it at the bust, almost as if the woman within had been hibernating in her bed and then the doorbell rang, and she had to rush and pull the covers off to see who was there.Īnd in the way that Dries Van Noten, also holding his first show since February 2020, told the story of the last two and a half years. In the same way that, at The Row, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen opened up austere black jackets along the spine and spliced sleeves along the seams so they could be tied, like a hug, around the torso. At the end, a quartet of strapless, circular dresses appeared, like giant crumpled balls of tinfoil or leftover string. With trenches ripped at the shoulders, and asymmetric knit shrugs so shredded it looked as if they were just old cobwebs snagged at some an abandoned house. So it went: with message tees and sweatshirts bearing words like “Love,” “Dream,” “Angel” and “Sweet,” slashed through the center and paired with slouchy chinos and jeans. And now Balmain: with a seemingly endless runway, an even more endless wait for the show to begin (welcome to fashion), and then a parade of more than 100 looks (women’s, men’s and couture) - and Cher. In Milan, Moncler hosted a mega-experience in the Piazza del Duomo. In New York earlier this month, Marni held an open-air show beneath the Manhattan Bridge that allowed bystanders a peek at the decorative goings-on. It’s turning into a trend this season, along with oversize trousers, lingerie dressing and acres of fringe. Backstage, reached through a maze of hallways, the designer Olivier Rousteing was holding court, talking about inclusivity and how, to him, that meant throwing open the doors of fashion to let everyone in. Around 7,000 people were munching French fries, clutching drinks, waving their phones in the air and otherwise waiting for the third Balmain Festival to begin. PARIS - The cavernous Stade Jean-Bouin, the rugby arena in the 16th Arrondissement, was heaving late Wednesday night.
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