Hideaki Shikama has been in an introspective temper. “I’ve been reconsidering Youngsters of the Discordance and in addition rethinking myself,” mentioned the designer throughout a preview of this fall 2024 lineup.
Extra particularly, Shikama has been ruminating on how he can proceed to make use of his label as a automobile to pursue originality and the way he can refocus it again to its preliminary ethos: “one and solely.” This meant going again to the drafting board and to the fundamentals of his work, which, he defined, are his materials. A lot of what makes Youngsters of the Discordance specific is how Shikama and his workforce repurpose discovered supplies and deadstock to create new kinds. The character of this follow signifies that each single piece will probably be totally different in its personal method, because the supplies used to place it collectively all fluctuate.
The lineup in itself didn’t characterize a departure from Shikama’s traditional type or aesthetic however extra of a doubling down. The bandana patchwork remained because the grounding group of the gathering and was complemented by a run of denim collaging in shades of grey and blue, which was repurposed from classic Levi’s. A collaboration with the sports-apparel producer Umbro dressed down the gathering with out straying too removed from the signature COTD mantra, nevertheless it was a few handcrafted textiles—one quilted and one other a woodblock stamp made with pure dyes in Rajasthan, India—that supplied some welcome texture.
What stays probably the most compelling proposition over at Shikama’s studio is the best way he and his workforce combine and match the items of his assortment. It’s right here that the “one and solely” precept actually involves life. The entire is larger than the sum of its elements.
