Opportunities to showcase the work of Junya Watanabe, the Japanese designer historically produced by the Maison Comme des Garçons, have been plentiful. He was among the illustrious guests at the Radical Fashion exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London back in 2001, which also inspired the homonymous publication.
Elements such as origami, metal detailing, and eco-leather are repeatedly used to create a strongly recognizable language that sits at the intersection of avant-garde cyber-metropolitan trends and the visual arts.
According to the philosophy established by the Japanese school—from Rei Kawakubo to Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and others—the dress transcends its simple decorative function, of medium and filter for social representation, instead becomes a creative opportunity and a textile device of complex realization.
For the current Fall/Winter season, Watanabe’s patchworks of matter evoke the ostentatious yet irresponsible luxury of snake skin, but in his hands, everything is a construct. The shapes, innovative and sculptural, articulate poetics that stand in stark contrast to any vulgarity. Silhouettes expand, as seen in the ‘spatial’ coat, whose expertly balanced volume takes the form of a spiral cape made from faux leather sewn onto heavy wool melton. Alternatively, they soften in a more subdued version with dropped sleeves. The dry eco-leather dress, essentially a long vest that can be layered over simpler outfits, does not shy away from more explicit elements of femininity. Unmissable the denim, with the collaboration with Levi’s, deconstructed and recomposed following the theme of the season.
This bold rhythm is a symphony of high notes and more subdued tones, a laborious composition between everyday contexts far removed from boredom and more vibrant and expressive social events.
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