A long time collaborator with Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, Junya is with no doubts the most attentive interpreter of the cyber metropolitan spirit of current urban cultures.

He is now one of the biggest stars in international fashion, able to astound with his unfailing ability to transform materials that make up and describe the present industrial landscapes into suggestions that inspire his collections. Steel threads, brass bits and pieces, plexiglass plates and fabrics for industrial use are modified and translated into sculptures that can be worn, signs of a time that is decoded by a complex intellectual project, rather than by transient products of mass business.

The expressive ability of the Japanese designer, however, is surprising even when he makes variations on his own inspirational standards. More than recalling futuristic and hyper-technological distressing moods of a modern megalopolis, the spring collection suggests the relaxing holiday mood of indefinite seaside resorts.

Faceless masks march on parade in a timeless moment, in spaces that are far from the daily frenzy, whilst the volumes fit with slowed down and light-hearted life rhythms.

The bodies, that are shaped in the usual complex female silhouettes, float in extremely light georgette fabric. The items of clothing are compositions of jackets, cardigans or simple shirts with draped skirts, made of different patterns and fabrics, or fresh summers skirts.

The navy blue and the recurring cream colour of the backgrounds outline seaside, summer moods, and imagination is carried away within the heat, the promises and the well-being of a season that is anticipated and longed for so much.

This seems to be the inspiration behind Rei Kawakubo’s new collection which, as usual, does not simply propose new trends for the current season, but complex creative works. The clothes are not presented for what they are, definite and completed items ready to be worn, but are rather abstract patterns to be repeated, superimposed, reversed and matched.

Skirts, shirts, jackets or waistcoats, every item of clothing is a sort of replicant that cannot be got rid of, that takes form and emerges from anywhere. The edge of a lapel, the stitching of a shoulder, the bottom of a skirt or of a pullover, the back of a dress are all possible places where another element can be put.

Comme des Garçons performs a sort of metalanguage of fashion, where the analysis and description of the process of the mind, which leads to concrete production, are revealed and suggested. Such an operation, that might have potentially obsessive and inflated results, is incredibly able to make up a poetic entirety that is generally harmonious, despite the centrality of asymmetrical lines.

Thanks to masterly tailoring and aesthetic skills, the imbalance of colours and volumes is translated into balanced solutions, whilst the urge to exceed is diluted by more severe pieces, where the creativity of the designer is shown by the fabric processing, for example the cotton that looks like skin.

This collection requires time and attention to detail, because, as we have already mentioned, nothing is as it seems.

Many pieces offer the possibility of being worn in different versions, thus enormously increasing the number of items of clothing.

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