Kolor shows in Paris, but is most assuredly not of Paris. It exists very much in its own, self-defining world. Which makes it all the more curious that Junichi Abe manages, without falling into the slipstream, to touch on each season's pressure points and trends. Designers have been embracing the northward creep of the turtleneck: Here were Abe's tripartite sweaters, trompe l'oeil mash-ups of turtleneck, V-neck, and cardigan at once. It's been a season of renewed emphasis on the suit, and here Abe came with a collection more structured and more (if you can use this word of Kolor) traditionally sartorial than many of his more fluid outings. Do the winds that sweep international fashion turn his weather vane, too? Could be. Or perhaps it's that each Kolor collection, various and sundry as it is, includes a little of everything, hot and not regardless of the fashion moment's whims. You can say this for him: When it's good, he doubles down. No other way to explain what amounted to twinsets: knit on knit in the traditional, matchy-matchy set, sure, and topcoat on matching waistcoat, but also mesh-covered puffer pieces layered one on the same.
