Not unlike the source material for many of her most celebrated found object jewelry pieces—safety pins, chain links, zip ties, carabiniers—Yoon Ahn is holding things together. Framed by a Zoom backdrop of pastel clouds, Ahn said from Tokyo that this collection was a continuation of last season’s project to “lay the ground” for Ambush’s future visual and wearable language. And now that the label is produced under the New Guards Group banner in Italy (Japanese denim apart), she has an expansive territory to shape.
One major consideration, she said, was to set about building garments that are both comfortable and which give comfort, “that bring that mental state.” To create said state Ahn shaped pieces designed to fire a sensation of specialness—“I don’t want to forget that feeling”—yet which: “become part of our daily life so that we can enjoy them more frequently.”
That was articulated in flexibly-cut dresses punctuated with sequins, cut-outs, and chain link hardwear, a bomber-jacket dress skirted in rib knit, and forgiving but unconventionally cut tailoring for men and women in volumized silhouettes with active-wear detailing: pieces to generate both impact and ease. Kimono collared down jackets and saturated color, full length shearlings played outerwear facade. Shoes included rubberized leather rain boots with square heels and faux fur slippers. Bags featured A-shaped metal handles on a new cross-body model; this hardware, along with the jewelry detailing on some of the ready-to-wear, were the loudest examples of visual branding in a collection that eschewed shouty logos or graphic-based messaging in favor of a more discreet approach.
This collection was an effective chapter in Ahn’s ongoing narrative, and one which opened up various possible plot-twists ahead. Some of the most recognizable pieces created by Ahn as a jewelry designer have been based on those found objects: by recontextualizing and reconfiguring these objects she renders them ‘special’ as jewelry through the prism of her design process. Working out how, or if, to adapt this genre-defying approach—an approach that ambushes our preconceptions—to the much broader yet physically specific context of clothing (ready-to-wear Readymades) is a fascinating challenge whose answer might just lurk in Ahn’s instinctive collision of specialness and comfort.
