When we last checked in with Yoon Ahn, she was on her way to meet specialty suppliers and artisans from around Japan. Now back in Paris, she said that scouting mission really shaped the latest Ambush collections—and not just concerning new materials, but the impressions that arrived while on the road. “After spending time in the countryside and developing things together, I decided I wanted to make this season more about slowness,” she said. Let the nosedived Mercedes staged for these photos be your warning: don’t move too fast through life.
With these thoughts driving her state of mind, Ahn directed the collection toward comfortable fabrics and a relaxed attitude while keeping silhouettes streamlined and urban. Outerwear was well-developed, and among the standouts were leather blazers with roomier volumes, a trench coat as weightless as a windbreaker, and a fun design that combined an MA-1 and a kimono. Tailored looks across both collections were tweaked with exposed linings and inner canvases, then paired with a padded tabi sandal stacked atop a sneaker sole, and the result felt convincingly on-brand.
Intent on pushing the design potential even further, Ahn said she intends to grow the denim side (for this, she did her research in Kojima, now considered Japan’s denim capital). Already, doubled-up jackets and vests and a cloud-effect denim jacquard were signs of category hits. On that note, three jewelry updates came in the form of an elegant A-shaped link for bracelets/necklaces, semiprecious stones as beaded necklaces for the ever-popular e-cigarette holders, and the creative use of matte rubber in bright yellow and industrial blue. Ahn selected that same blue hue for one of the new Converse x Ambush collaborations, a glossy duck boot/sneaker hybrid that felt different than all the current multicolor oddities out there.
Altogether, the collections reflected an ambitious level of production and output that, even when not always coherent in theme, conveyed Ahn’s evolving mindset. “I was thinking about stuff that would get better the more you wear it,” she said. “Even if it’s something like simple denim, the beauty is that you wear it over and over again and then it becomes part of your wardrobe and part of you.”
