Junya Watanabe, typically, had one word—the perfect word—to sum up his show in praise of Italian dudes: classico! A society of immaculately grizzled dressers had nonchalantly strolled his runway, trilbies and flat caps set just so, as if on their way—no rush—to some sort of meetup. Some of them nodded to each other, shook hands, back slapped. Camel coats shrugged on, tweeds implanted with racing car jackets, gold chains flashing at their necks, the odd paisley scarf tucked into an unbuttoned shirt here, a pair of white-framed aviators there...before you knew it, Watanabe had us making up whole scenarios about these eye-catching guys, and whatever mysterious, lucrative businesses they might be involved in.
Anyone who spends time in Italy—as Junya Watanabe does—recognizes these sorts of guys. They’re a familiar sight in any town, possessed of an enviable style that speaks to the background of Italian industry; in this case, it’s super high-grade car manufacturing, and the multiplicity of specialist engineering companies that supply it. Watanabe gave more information this time; he said the collection was inspired by the head of the textiles company with whom he works in Italy. An assistant pulled up a group photo of a trip to its HQ on her phone. “There, there he is,” she said, pointing to an idol of sophistication with a swept-back gray mane, sporting a three-piece suit with that casual raffishness only age can bring. “And he drives a Lexus sports car,” she added, translating Watanabe’s words, “open-top.”
That’s what set him off on the Italian racing car track, and wanting to collaborate with an exhaustive list of brands in that world for use of their logos. There they all were, with their retro-revered typefaces patch-worked into fragments of padded souvenir jackets on tailoring: Pirelli, the tire people; Brembo, the brake manufacturers; Abarth, the sports car makers. And so on.
The notion of being in a club, in the know, sporting the signs and symbols of authentic provenance–Junya Watanabe’s work is all about the language of masculine identity. Each season he basically writes an ever-expanding encyclopedia on the subject, an index of ongoing collaborators. Practical, affectionate, good-natured, real—the Watanabe vibe for men makes his show one of the most uplifting in Paris.
