9 am. Saturday. Paris fashion week day 6. 3ish hours of sleep. Another big empty industrial building hidden beneath an unassuming Haussmannian facade. Diane and I are both stumbling over cords and uneven concrete in the dark of this windowless landscape that will soon serve only as canvas to Junya Watanabe’s latest collection. Neither one of us will take off our sunglasses. And despite this ungodly hour and the fact that my body is screaming for coffee and sweet mercy, there is absolutely no place in the world I would rather be.
Junya Watanabe presents his latest collection through the lense and style references of rock and roll- predominantly influenced by Jimi Hendrix, but really the whole of the late 60s to early 80´s is present throughout. Skin tight boot cut leather trousers and furry chaps are paired with variations of leather motorcycle jackets whose forms have been treated more like origami than clothing. Massive geometrical structures jut out of shoulders, backs, arms etc. which become increasingly more deconstructed and avant-garde. What looks first to be angular exaggerated shoulders up close is actually leather boots integrated into the jacket arms. Boots as sleeves- surprisingly this may be a first? The shoulder line of another piece extends far above the model’s head, her long wet-look hair is draped over the back like fringe.
Latex and leather are quilted together like a mosaic to make a long black trench. A feather fur bolero jacket with large rounded shoulders is paired with velvet pants. Only black on black textures lusciously complement one another. Blonde wigs are sewn together to make what would certainly be a Farrah Fawcett-approved fringe jacket. Statement piece is an understatement. As the music becomes more melodic, a more buttoned up Brit rock-romanticism seeps through as Watanabe presents wacky structured deep blue velvet tea- dresses with lace collars. Studded doc martens punctuate many looks, reinforcing their particular timelessness.
Watanabe’s work pays consistent and profound homage to geometry and retrofuturism, walking the line between space-age tech wear, classical badass-isism, and reworked cubism. This collection embraces those fundamental influences in a bold and brash tone that effectively wakes us all the hell up.
Through the different forms presented in vignettes of material that transcend influences of past and future, we are invited to delve into Watanabe’s exploration of shape and context alongside him, and to admire his process as more artistic than fashion, which is what places him as so consistently highly regarded. He invites the wearer, the viewer, and the critic to constantly and wholeheartedly analyze his creations as sculpture, as art.
