At Pitti Uomo, Setchu’s Runway Debut to Spotlight Cool Tailoring, Japanese Influences

MILAN — Those familiar with Satoshi Kuwata’s work know the Japanese, Milan-based designer has a peculiar way of conceiving his collections.

His starting point is always a piece of paper, but he doesn’t use it to sketch. Instead, he folds it, tears it, crinkles it and plays with it to spark new ideas on proportions and multifunctionality to imbue in his fashions, which through cool tailoring, workwear inflections and a charming fusion of Japanese and Western influences earned him the 2023 LVMH Prize for Young Designers.

The fall 2025 line he will show on Thursday at 7.30 p.m. CET as guest designer of Pitti Uomo is no exception. In a preview with WWD over Zoom, the designer showed his technique, folding a piece of paper into half, and then half again. He teased that this time he has toyed with the idea of more cropped proportions or with “something you can really put upside-down,” as he displayed the paper’s final result as a square shape.

Yet for his brand’s runway debut, Kuwata leaned more toward a verbal description of his upcoming show. “If I have to pick a word to explain what is the message of this collection, it would be appreciation,” he said.

“I don’t want to talk politics, but there are so many things people can complain about these days and it makes me sad. When you go back to how I grew up, look where I am now… It’s so easy to be negative, but let’s be really positive and appreciate what we have,” said the designer.

Kuwata was born in Kyoto, Japan, and moved to London at age 21 to pursue a career in fashion. He launched the unisex label Setchu in 2020 after cutting his teeth at Huntsman on Savile Row during his studies at Central Saint Martins, followed by Gareth Pugh in London, Kanye West and Givenchy in Paris, Edun in New York City, and Golden Goose in Milan.

All these experiences, bolstered by his positive approach, will permeate his show in Florence — from the choice of location and format to the actual garments. 

For one, he zeroed in on the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze library as the show venue in a nod to his Central Saint Martins heydays. “I remember those days: I spent as much time as possible in the library, finding the right book,” he recalled. 

“I have nothing against this,” he said showing his phone’s screen, “but it was harder to find the right image, it was harder to know what you were studying. But there was achievement once you found the right book, and that happiness still remains in my memory.”

Going further back down memory lane, the designer said his childhood was spent growing up on a tatami and watching black-and-white TV. “Everything was black and white and now we have so much colorful information. But even in black and white, there’s so many shades of grays and textures.”

He will look to reprise these in his new collection’s color palette. While strongly hinged on black and white, he also reworked tartan checks — an image sometimes rooted in punk aesthetics — into a more subdued, gray-centric version. 

“My textile supplier in Biella helped me develop this fabric and we really saw like 20 different grays and combined one lighter and darker and black and white to make a new tartan,” said the designer.

With his business based in Italy and committed to enhancing the local textile culture and expertise, Kuwata also tied up with a Como-based company to develop a special tapestry-like fabric made of silk, that promises to stand out among his traditionally solid clothes. There will also be a new type of lace developed for the season that will further enrich the textural quotient of the lineup.

Even if developed in Italy, both additions still nod to the Japanese roots of the designer, as he intertwined an oriental narrative into the collection. He said he was inspired by the Japanese literature classic “The Tale of Genji,” also known as Genji Monogatari, which is centered on the story of the emperor’s son Genji, his romantic life and the customs of the aristocratic society during the Heian period.

“I started looking at this story, and thought why can’t it be sort of genderless? It’s always the story about Prince Genji falling in love with girls, and those girls are jealous of something. But I wanted to explore this more open-mindedly,” said the designer. “I personally love and have strong passion about fishing, so what if Genji fell in love with a fisherman? So I started recreating the Genji story.”

In another confluence of Western and Eastern influences, he also dabbled in sartorial staples. “Because Pitti is a sartorial event, I think the highlight should be gentleman’s clothes. Yet I don’t want to [focus only on] men. For Setchu, clothing is genderless,” he said, mentioning the coed casting.

The collection is divided into categories such as sartorial, jersey and denim, and in terms of silhouettes, the fall 2025 lineup aligns with Kuwata’s overarching attitude to ensure the longevity of his clothes. Rather than stretching his assortment and adding many new designs season after season, he is known for his commitment to perfecting Setchu’s existing tropes. 

“Our collections are repeated pieces. For example, our iconic origami jacket — I use it every season. Usually designers are trying to find the new garments to show, and it’s full of products. I don’t want that,” said Kuwata. “I want my client to use the same things. The origami jacket you bought is not ‘last collection,’ it is still happening now. Again, let’s appreciate what we have.”

But for those looking for something new, a Setchu customer can transform favorite pieces with tweaks by folding them differenly, resulting in different drapes and new fits. 

There are also other ways for Kuwata to turn wardrobe archetypes into sophisticated garments with an unpredictable edge. He is known also for using zippers, snap buttons and buttons to morph the appearance of ribbed sweaters and knits, to have detachable hems and sleeves or to open the silhouette of outerwear and dresses, so that the same item can be worn in three to 10 different ways.

Hence, some pieces will be repeated on the runway, too, but worn differently each time to display their range.

“I’m trying to use as few garments as possible on the catwalk. If you go to big maisons’ fashion shows, you have 1,000 pieces in 50 looks. Not here: I’m trying to use as few items as possible, so people can see which garment is key,” said the designer.

As a result of his quest for explaining the process and thinking behind his clothes, Kuwata has been reluctant about holding fashion shows so far in his career. Since winning the LVMH prize, he opted to stage presentations during Milan Fashion Week that ranged from conceptual installations to social gatherings at lesser-known yet historic locations such as La Belle Aurore. 

“A Milan Fashion Week event takes more time to prepare in a way, because a runway show is easier than a presentation: it costs more money but it’s the one format everyone follows. If you try to do something so different, it becomes a performance, and I didn’t want to go for that,” he said. ”But the challenging thing for us was how to make this different from Milan Fashion Week but also a brand experience.”

To this end, Kuwata opted for a format that will see the runway show followed by a presentation, as he will invite guests to relax and — drink in hand — take some time to roam in a separate exhibition space to discover more about how garments were made, directly from him.

“This event is really for press and buyers to spend a little bit more time to digest Setchu,” said the designer.