Dear Shaded viewers,
Before its gate was opened to the public, Jun Takahashi invited a select few to view the SS25 collection of Undercover womenswear. Down the stairs and into the basement, white mannequins awaited, some standing static and others on spinning platforms. Silver buckles and golden zippers immediately caught the spotlights.
At their core, the designs were every day, practical garments: a hoodie, a t-shirt dress, a cardigan, a blazer, a bomber jacket, a biker jacket – all with boxy, loose-fitting silhouettes. But true to his punk heart, Takahashi reimagined the pieces with an unignorable fetishization, using different mechanisms of restraint.
Bondage-inspired strapping allowed casual wear to be adjusted to any body shape. Some garments featured fastening straps made of the same material as the rest of the garment with silver buckles, while others had golden zippers, linked and laced with leather. At the waist, they may be tightened to cinch as desired – not overtly feminine but sexy, nonetheless. Paired with warm hues, soft natural fabrics, and the flow of almost bishop-shaped, ballooning sleeves, the fetish details became understated. However, when the same bindings appeared on leather jackets and leggings, they amped them up with punk-rock seduction.
In a room of their own were four dresses – one pink, black, white and one with a lemon on black print – with figure hugging silhouettes defined by the same harness additions. Fabric surged at the top and bottom of each, where it wasn’t held down by the buckled straps or leather zipper corsets.
There were also garments without bondage elements, more closely continuations of the latest Undercover menswear collection. These featured prints based on Robert Bosisio’s abstract artworks, with washed colour effects created by a needle-punching technique. Several faded prints, featuring lemons and spinning armchairs, appeared on matching linen sets and dresses.
The mannequins were styled with lace and gold eye masks, as well as headpieces made of metal leaves or nails – another callback to last June’s menswear show. One wore a gauze choker with “Kosmik Witch” printed bold across the neck. It hinted at a connection, perhaps the collection was an embodiment, to Jun Takahashi’s curated “Kosmik Music” playlists on Spotify (currently there are 116).
Later,
Eliya
