The time has finally come for the much awaited Undercover x Evangelion collection to drop in stores, and we decided to revisit the exclusive interview Jun Takahashi kindly gave to us surrounding this collection after the March show. We are carrying the drop at ANT/DOTE. You can purchase the collection on our web store – we ship worldwide – or visit our store in Atlanta.
We would like to present to you the KUON Fall / Winter 2021 collection, based on Albert Einstein’s quote, “Learn from yesterday, live for today and hope for tomorrow.”
This line lead the designer Shinichiro Ishibashi to look back, as he usually does, on the past of his native Japan, especially the late Edo period of the 19th Century, but also at the 1920s West, with its gleeful mood of progress in all matters, including those of dress. Ishibashi is good at fusing and modernizing traditional Japanese and Western dress, and this was another mixup with great results, such as a relaxed fit blazer with tuxedo lapels, or a loose gray belted robe coat.
He kept the palette to brown, gray, and indigo blue as a nod to the Edo period dress, but concentrated on mixing and matching their various tones, as a nod to the subtle sense of the rebellion of “just so.”
One of Ishibashi’s signatures is elevating the traditional boro patchwork from its Japanese peasant roots and making it elegantly crisp. The long indigo patchwork coat was a particular standout in this quietly sublime collection.
Shortly after covid began making waves throughout the world and subsequently the fashion system, many have talked about what the impact means for business and called into question the existing fashion model and its place in modern society. One of the most visible effects was this summer’s Paris fashion week, as in lieu of cancelling…
Several days ago we learned of the passing of the milliner and hairdresser Katsuyo Kamo. He was one of the most creative and sought after collaborators, working with Undercover, Junya Watanabe, Anrealage in Japan, and Europeans like Haider Ackermann, Chanel, and Fendi. His incredibly headpieces were especially indispensable to the image-making at Undercover, whose designer Jun Takahashi counted Kamo as a friend.
It was just announced that Takahiro Miyashita will stage his first Paris catwalk show during the upcoming men’s season. It is his first show in Paris for his new label TAKAHIROMIYASHITATheSoloist. The show will take place on January 15th.
Good news for all you Undercover fans! We have been able to finagle some very rare Undercover books.
Last week Anrealage held a retrospective show in Tokyo, spanning 15 years of Kunihiko Morinaga’s designs.
Fashion is supposed to be fast, but it can be surprisingly late to many things, like e-commerce.
Kei Shigenaga decided to become a jewelry maker because he saw it as an intersection of fashion and sculpture, two things he’s been interested in for a long time. “I feel that jewelry is not simply something fashionable, but it can be an art object you can have with you every day,” says the Japanese silversmith, who makes everything by hand in his Tokyo studio. He often goes back to traditional Japanese culture for inspiration, trying to make it modern in his own way. Lately he’s been interested in “kintsugi,” a traditional form of art where broken ceramics are mended back together using lacquer covered with gold dust, only Shigenaga uses melted gold instead. In a way, the combination of destruction and creation is the crux of his work.” In my work I try to concentrate on the roughness of precious metals,” says he. He is interested in tension between the image of fine jewelry as something delicate, yet tough.
Undercover / TAKAHIROMIYASHITATheSoloist. will be live streaming their Fall/Winter 2018 shows at Pitti Uomo on Thursday, January 11 at 7:30pm CET (1:30pm EST).