“Sophistication, but with something sloppy . . . something dirty. That’s the idea,” said Kolor’s Junichi Abe of his autumnal ruminations. If Fall’s first look—a red plaid shirt-jacket with an oddly placed, lumpen cargo pocket—was an indicator of the “dirty” and the “sloppy” the designer was gunning for, it still looked pretty natty. It soon became clear that those words were manifested more in regard to mix and mash-up than in terms of anything literal.
It is Abe’s particular skill to blend multi-referential textures across a soft, if not soothing, palette—today, his mind went to, say, an ocher corduroy button-down with a collar ringed in blonde fur. So weird, but so good! Cream-hued shearling was window-framed around purple nylon to comprise a vest; a great blanket-striped jacket was trimmed at the waist with washed-out denim.
That all being said, a Kolor runway can get a little sleepy (some of the plainer pieces this afternoon were . . . well, just that), but Abe exalts when he nails that melodic sweet spot of contemporary sportswear avec a twist. Look no further than the footwear for Fall. While the furry examples—similar to the shoes seen at Prada, as it happens—were take them or leave them, the multi-tonal suede Chelsea boots were excellent. Those hit a lust-inducing high note.
