Alpha Industries. Baracuta. Bates. Brooks Brothers. C.P. Company. Carhartt (presumably Work in Progress). Filson. GREGORY. MXDVS. Oakley. Palace. Patta. Reigning Champ. Levis. Mackintosh. Maison Kitsuné. Lousy Livin (in some amusing shorts).
Phew. Yet again, Junya Watanabe presented a show that mingled his mainline and eYe diffusion line, and which was packed with enough collaborators to fill a Pitti pavilion: there were 18 commercial collabs (plus two styling-only loaners) in a show that ran to 29 looks. Among the hottest mash-ups were the indigo denim fronted, tin cloth backed Filson Mackinaw, a Palace patched field jacket and flight suit, and a hoodie with grommet lined cropped sleeves bearing the inimitable signature of Shawn Stüssy.
However none of the above, Watanabe indicated via missive from backstage, were his primary collaborative concern this season. Instead he suggested that his main emphasis was to enmesh his menswear practice with his womenswear. It was telling that March’s most recent Watanabe womenswear show also had 29 looks, and there were certainly some interesting parallels between the two. Again the designer appeared to construct new forms from pre-existing elements of clothing sourced from technical wear, trenches, denim and bikers.
Instead of Led Zeppelin, these forms were this time soundtrack by Pink Floyd (“Sheep,” “Pig,” and “Dogs” with accompanying Atom Heart Mother cow-butt band tee). This in part meant the clothes seemed less intensely urgent, dystopian and possibly borderline political and more exercises in intricate creativity performed for their own sake. The result was wearable jigsaw puzzles in which all the pieces have been fitted together in order to make an image different to the original from which they were cut. The sheer eclecticism of the collaborative collage made this show the equivalent of a tasting menu rather than a single dish consisting of multiple ingredients. What every dish shared was the imprimatur of Watanabe’s signature connoisseurship.
