Junya Watanabe has always been fascinated by hermetic dress codes, but with his men's show today he outdid himself. Focusing on the sapeurs, the Congolese dandies for whom extreme style has become a way of flouting the status quo, Watanabe presented a supremely elegant collection of formal tailoring. You could go back before La Sape (La Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes) to Carl Van Vechten's photographs of Harlem in its Sunday best to find an equally illuminating reference point. Either way, the show was a theatrical parade of sharp-dressed men who put on a display—from Samuel L. Jackson's gimlet stare to Michael J. Jackson's limber bodypop—which reduced the audience to a state of helpless ovation.
The presentation also highlighted Watanabe's ability to extract as much juice as possible from one very defined inspiration. If it began with a fairly literal statement of intent—a shawl-collar blazer over smart gray trousers—it extended into jackets that were knitted, not woven; pants that had given out completely on the thigh and knee; and items pieced together in Watanabe's signature patchwork. There was a puffa jacket, and jogging pants, and jean-jacket detailing to inject a sportswear element—everything put together with that peerless Japanese precision that makes the copy more authentic than the original.
Speaking of which, there was also extreme contrast in the model situation, with the sapeurs sharing space with a handful of dandified Edwardian hoods who looked unsettlingly like undertakers. They helped ensure that the show was a bolder statement than we've seen from Watanabe of late. We've been hungering for it.
