The undisputed highlight of Tokyo Spring 2019 was the meeting of two minds: Masanori Morikawa of Christian Dada and Shinpei Yamagishi of Bed j.w. Ford, who jointly showed their collections, plus a special capsule created for Amazon Fashion, together as Dada j.w. Ford. The show took place in the concrete parking garage above Contact, a techno club in Shibuya; models walked along the fourth and fifth floors, climbing the ramp that lay between, as the city’s youth and corporate suits converged on a single row of metal benches.
Vogue Runway reviewed Christian Dada’s Spring offering in Paris in June, and so the focus here will rest on Ford (worth noting, however, how well the two blended together—Dada x Ford could make a powerful duo). Yamagishi is a swiftly rising talent in Tokyo’s menswear sphere, which has lately taken the spotlight from women’s (notably, Masayuki Ino’s Doublet won the LVMH Prize this year). His designs possess a rare and particularly poetic sensitivity, which made it easy to pick out Bed j.w. Ford at a glance.
There were his signature louche, languid suits—in a rich turmeric yellow or hot pink with tangerine lining—cropped at the calf, unhemmed, and unmistakably Yamagishi. Another, cut from a heather gray linen, bore a blue ball pen sketch of a horse in mid-gallop, with a delicate yellow silk jacket worn cross-body. Runway photos fail to do his designs justice, as Yamagishi pointedly makes clothes to be enjoyed in real life, not on an Instagram page—a hidden chest strap or the precise placement of a slash through which silk fringe can just barely be seen. Simply put, they are intelligently made and beautiful to behold; technically men’s but beloved by women.
