“Many Japanese men of my generation are inspired by all-American, Ivy League style,” said Kolor’s Junichi Abe, bright and early in Le Marais this morning. His Spring collection pulled from that longstanding sartorial image bank, but, in now-typical Kolor practice, Abe enlivened it with sugary colors and remixes of its de facto tropes.
A necktie—diagonally striped in collegiate bands—was made so thin it felt like it might dissolve in your hands. Abe wrapped it around his neck in a scarf-like manner, but it could, very well, have been tied in the more traditional, knotted way. A formal blue blazer was given an idiosyncratic spark not by the patch of a school crest, but rather a cartoonish clown-caped figure with lightning bolts for legs. And a striped crewneck had the word Penny printed in electric blue across its front. “For penny loafer,” laughed Abe.
It didn’t end there; there was a seersucker jacket, as preppy a fabric as ever, inset with floral panels and neon orange piping, as well as a big-block madras car coat. Summing it up literally, a baseball cap made with New Era was embroidered with the stereotypes of Abe’s chosen realm, from rugby shirts to Bermuda shorts to letterman’s sweaters. Overall, his contemporary enhancement of the classics probably won’t win over traditionalists. (And there are still quite a few of them that adhere to this pseudo-dress code.) But for the lighthearted and style-confident kid, Ivy-bound or otherwise, there was plenty to want here.
