Stein’s Kiichiro Asakawa is a self-described maniacku. The Japanese phrase, itself a transliteration of the English maniac, extra precisely means enthusiastic or obsessive. Working example: This season’s half-nylon, half-powder-bleached denims are made by a minimum of 4 separate factories: one for the denim, one for the bleach, one for the nylon, and one for splicing every part collectively.
These denims are nearly as good an instance as Asakawa’s uncompromising method. “I’ve a robust need to create precisely what I envision and remove something which may distract from it,” he stated fortunately as he combed by way of the gathering on a brief rail at Carol, the Tokyo boutique he owns and operates from, after it closed for the day.
This season’s theme was ‘Linear’ and Asakawa sought to discover the strains and edges of silhouettes, seams and textiles – therefore these cut up four-factory pants. A lot of the outerwear, finest product of clean vegetable-tanned leather-based and a tightly woven wool gabardine, was punctuated with steel rivets on the sides or again of the neck so as to add an industrial contact, whereas the hardware-studded fishing vests have been fashionable with out feeling distracting. The model additionally launched hoods for the primary time and experimented with shorter jackets as a substitute of the lengthy, billowing coats that Asakawa is so good at (though there have been nonetheless just a few of the latter so that you can take pleasure in, elegantly tied along with string-thin leather-based straps).
The lookbook photographs do not fairly do the garments justice. In actual life, they appear costlier and classy, they usually’re positive to be on the backs of many taste-conscious Tokyoites come spring. At the very least by way of sheer retail enchantment, Asakawa is a worthy one maniacku at the moment.
