It’s absurd how much time men’s fashion spends not looking at middle-aged manhood. At 58, Junya Watanabe is a dissenter—positively enthusiastic about the prospect of recruiting the ranks of senior dudes he got to mosey out on his runway today. “Silver swagger” was his pithy descriptor of the collection’s vibe, and man, did they deliver it. Rarely has there been such a viewing of old-guy style authority—beards, cheekbones, swept-back gray locks, and I-get-up-like-this-son clothes ownership—witnessed under the fashion sun.
If you can classify it as “fashion,” that is. The genius of the design Watanabe commands in his practice for men is that it gets over the embarrassment of novelty fashion—which is never quite on for the adult male. His proposition is more of an assemblage of garments that have been okayed by the general council of lived-in male experience. He’s the jazz rearranger of the back catalog of all the stuff blokes want in their lives: army surplus, tweed, denim, biker leather, parkas, ’50s knits, corduroy, workwear, regular shirts.
And of course, every piece of clothing—jacket, coat, shirt, whatever—gets to be a lived-in collage of the materials above. He followed up with a further statement in an email, which confirmed: “Watanabe-san finds that today, older men possess stronger personalities and are cooler than the younger generations.” Guys past 40, step this way.
