This Kolor show was streamed live from Tokyo—where behind a set of gnarled and leafless trees you could spot a real, live audience! As usual, Juniche Abe presented both menswear and womenswear simultaneously. According to his notes, the collection represented a push to incorporate minimalism into his signature maximalism, in order to bring “a new style of simplicity where complexity also coexists within.”
To detect the “simple” often demanded a knotty negotiation with the complex. Finely tailored trenches and camel coats lurked under bib-like pieces of collar sometimes adorned with swatches of material that looked to have been adapted from olive militaria. On the shadowy runway, menswear jackets cast a coherent slimmed down silhouette which when emerged into patches of light proved to be shaped in panels of different fabrics. Knitwear was deconstructed and sourced from different weights, patterns, and provenances to make attractively complex mongrel wearables.
If Abe’s thesis didn’t convincingly stand comparison with its result, the collection itself well merited serious scrutiny. Because that minimal schminimal hoo-ha apart, this was a riotously compelling stew of slow-brewed ingredients blended into a deliciously complex whole. Sportswear, checked ’70s inspired pieces, and irregular blurs of burgundy tulle were cut against each other to create a fusion folk-costume drawn from global references that was distinct yet sometimes felt akin to the wonderful work of Antonio Marras. Coherent? Yes. Simple? Absolutely not. That fortunate audience had much to enjoy.
