Designer Sayori Tanaka and creative director Akira Kuboshita want to become Japan’s answer to Acne Studios, and they staged their first Paris presentation for Tanaka to prove it. “Many people love Japanese denim, but there is not a strong Japanese denim label yet,” explained Tanaka at their showroom.
Prior to launching the brand in 2017, Tanaka, who cut her teeth at Yohji Yamamoto, was women’s design director on Uniqlo’s global design team, while Kuboshita held the same role for the retailer’s menswear. Since launching their label they have garnered around 100 stockists worldwide, including Bergdorf Goodman, 10 Corso Como and United Arrows in Japan. Their contemporary silhouettes are built around heavyweight Japanese denim, sharply cut and tailored, but with arty or streetwise twists.
Here, a trip to New Mexico last summer informed the design aesthetic. Single pieces of selvedge were ruffled into puff-sleeved crop tops loosely inspired by flowers, or draped and pleated as rangy maxidresses, while bright pink workwear was embroidered with chunks of rock crystal. Paisley motifs — as a block print on ecru denim or a cropped reversible silk puffer — and a luminous color palette lent hippie vibes, while wide pants — presented in denim, chocolate leather or printed silk — with a zip-off front skirt panel were multitaskers in this appealing androgynous wardrobe.
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