Junya Watanabe Man Spring 2023

An adept serial collaborator fond of American workwear brands like Levi’s, Brooks Brothers and Carhartt, Junya Watanabe widened his list of dance partners even further for spring 2023 to the crème de la crème of American Pop artists.

Roy Lichtenstein’s forlorn, comic-strip females gazed out from the front of jean jackets, or the back of anoraks; Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Monroe” fronted an orange sweater and patched low-slung jeans; Keith Haring’s doodles enlivened windbreakers and bomber jackets, and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s crowns and skull motifs were splattered over papery blazers and the ubiquitous camp shirt.

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Watanabe treated all of this fine art with a light and casual hand, letting these blue-chip artworks share real estate on the clothes with popular consumer brands like Coca-Cola, Netflix and Honda. Case in point: He bypassed Warhol’s most famous Campbell soup can, “Tomato,” for the more obscure “Pepper Pot.” (In case you’re curious, Campbell discontinued Pepper Pot — made of beef tripe, vegetables, pepper and other seasonings — in 2010.)

By now, Watanabe pretty much owns the “Field & Stream” look of slightly rumpled, elbow-patch jacket, and jeans collaged with checkered fabrics. But he showed that it still has mileage and charm.

Rare is the Paris collection that you could see walk off the runway into real life, but here is one — from the wry logo baseball caps down to the sprightly colored New Balance sneakers. While visually busy, the collection was spirited, superbly styled and extremely approachable for regular guys and Brooklyn hipsters alike.

Launch Gallery: Junya Watanabe Men's Spring 2023

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