Geometry in motion is as good a description as any for Junya Watanabe's fall collection, in which rigid harness-like contraptions based on square pyramids, tors, and more amorphous shapes orbited the designer's fine tailoring and tailoring. .
Watanabe began exploring thorny and protruding shapes for spring 2024 and clearly hasn't tired of working on those problems.
“I want to express the beauty of the contrast between clothing and sculptures,” he said in a quote provided.
These radical garments seemed like a poke in the eye to quiet luxury, Watanabe's camel coat abstracted into a bulging cage of polyhedra with portals to the floral chintz dress beneath. Practical? Hardly. Visually stunning? Out of series.
Ultimately, stiff pyramids of patent leather protruding from blanket coats or resting on turtlenecks gave way to outerwear and dresses paved with the prismatic padding found in motocross gear, and then to softer treatments with rings of Saturn that used strips of smooth leather or belts with many studs.
It felt more futuristic than punk; the final gorgeous coat that looks like something an evil stepdaughter of Darth Vader might wear with its imperious, jutting leather shoulders and her large cape-like sleeves.
Watanabe cut up his fetish biker jackets and miraculously flared them into eggbeater shapes and, in a break from all the stiffer fare, released a puffer jacket that looked like a soft licorice ice cream cone.
Add Watanabe to the list of fashion designers this week who should be tapped to costume a sci-fi movie or series soon.
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