Undercover Men’s Spring 2021
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Jun Takahashi may be shaken by the COVID-19 lockdown, and the never-going-back-to-normal mentality the pandemic has brought with it, but he put those fears to the side and turned out a playful, whimsical collection that defied this worrying moment.
Indeed, it was as if Takahashi looked at spring through the eyes of a child wanting to dress like papa — or even grandpa — what with all the baggy trousers, rolled cuffs, gold pins, trinkets and old-world embellishments such as colorful hankies spilling from coat pockets.
The designer said he wanted to “make a new life. Make new noise,” and trust that good will come of this moment. He also took this unusual time to experiment with 3-D technology, creating a blink-and-you-miss-it video, and allowing viewers to spin, flip and enlarge his hi-res look book imagery.
No, it wasn’t as evocative as his colorful, sometimes conceptual, runway outings, but it made the clothes easy to see — especially for the buyers who couldn’t make it to Paris. But Takahashi said he was proud of the “ground-breaking” 3-D content showcasing the collection, and the service he was providing his clients.
The 3-D models wore a mix of slouchy tailoring and sporty styles: There were suits with baggy trousers and rolled hems and jackets pierced with little gold safety pins and fine chains. Workwear was super roomy, as in a brown donkey coat with big patch pockets and a blue topcoat with white contrast stitching. Casual styles had a jazzier feel, with palm tree, exploded rose and classical statue prints on pajama suits and loose, boxy shirts and trousers.
Knits, in hades of mustard or lavender, were covered in tears and unravelling holes as if the moths had feasted on them. Others came with harlequin patterns — recalling the designer’s fall 2020 show at an indoor circus in January, in another era.
Launch Gallery: Undercover Men's Spring 2021
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