Shinya Kozuka’s spring 2024 present happened within the huge outside plaza of the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium Sub Area, the place he led us on a somnambulant stroll below the total moon. It was becoming: Kozuka’s message this season was pulled from a narrative by which the author Natsume Soseki translated “I really like you” to the infinitely extra poetic “the moon is gorgeous, isn’t it?” Not each designer can bend the skies to his will, however the climate gods had been clearly on Kozuka’s facet tonight.
Again down on earth, there was some sharpening left to do. The fashions had been at first too distant to see, and after they did come shut sufficient the floodlighting was so one-sided that their fronts had been solid in shadow. When you could possibly see them, the garments often had a lot occurring that it was laborious to parse the small print.
Then again, what Shinya Kozuka does is loveable exactly as a result of it’s all a bit mad and wonky. A Central Saint Martins alum, he has one thing of a London sensibility about his garments in the way in which that they’ll appear slightly hodgepodge and experimental (his inspirations span from Raf Simons to Margaret Howell to Dragonball), however are in the end charming—simply have a look at these honk-shoo sleeping caps!
Lots of the items had been adorned with Kozuka’s authentic sketches, which he does on his iPad, and which appear to be scribbly toile de jouy. “I all the time make footage of what I’m eager about or impressed by, and develop the gathering from there,” he mentioned. This time they depicted the banal fantastic thing about each day life, and so the outsized tailoring and denim had been printed with scenes you would possibly see when on the road: an previous girl strolling her shiba inu; the welcoming signal of a tonkatsu restaurant; merry-makers staggering residence from an izakaya. “I believe that garments are part of the surroundings of an individual’s life,” he mentioned. “Like while you go on a primary date and confess your emotions to somebody, the garments you put on change into a part of that have.
Kozuka had additionally been eager about Yves Klein blue, and observed how intently the colour matched the blue-and-gold aluminium cans of The Premium Malt’s beer that he typically sips on his walks. This, he felt, made for a well-recognized level of reference, and served as the colour palette for the gathering. The ensuing broderie anglaise shirts, gold brocade pajamas, tinselly cardigans, and blue silk bombers had been individually particular, and could be worn on loads of these first dates come spring.
