Junya Watanabe set his show in the National Museum of Immigration History in Paris, an immense Art Deco place, built to celebrate the cultural benefits of French colonialism, when that sort of thing was thought to accrue to the glory of the republic. On the way in, guests passed a piece of contemporary art which gave some people pause: a wooden boat, filled to heaving point with bundles wrapped in African fabric. It took but a small leap to associate that with another scene at Dismaland, where Banksy's boats filled with miniature models of immigrants floated on a disused Weston-super-Mare holiday pond.
An uncomfortable choice of surroundings, then, for Watanabe to show us a collection themed around African fabric patterns, on a cast of white models whose faces were decorated with pale flesh–color globules, mimicking tribal scarification marks. It was hard to know which way to react. Watanabe is as known for his quiet pacifism and his silent rebellious streak as he is for never giving explanatory quotes. Was it a commentary on fashion's long record of annexing the dress, art, and religious artifacts of "other" peoples? Should he be criticized for doing that? And how does he view that from Tokyo, living in a country whose culture is constantly appropriated by Western fashion (as seen only this week in John Galliano's geisha-themed show)?
Anyway: There was no denying the anxiety of watching Watanabe's show through the prism of all these contextual and moral questions. A pity, because at the beginning, there was a clear view to beautiful, loose smocks and shirtdresses, some with draped belled sleeves, and semi-sheer fabrics, some of which involved black matte lace constructed in a pattern which merged a sense of camouflage with animal pattern. After that came two looks with a knitted tiger amid leopard pelts thrown over the shoulders as wraps; also great. No doubt the African wax-print looks, which followed, will be prove as easy and commercial summerwear in stores; but at the same time, they will leave some feeling uneasy.
