“Fashion once belonged to no one.”
So said Masu’s Shinpei Goto, who has been pushing back against the fashion machine. “Fashion should be enjoyable for everyone, but the brands that reign at the top of Paris Fashion Week dictate what’s right,” he said during a preview of this season’s collection in Tokyo. “I don’t want to participate in that game.”
Goto’s rebellion against fashion’s feudal system isn’t just talk. In lieu of holding runway shows or just putting out lookbooks, for the past few seasons the designer has been investing in live events for the brand’s many fans, known as Masu Boys. Titled Masuboysland—like Disneyland—the latest iteration was an archive sale in Tokyo, which also served as a mini-preview of his fall 2026 collection. It was a sellout success, with 1,000 fans paying to attend. How many emerging brands could pull off the same?
Goto has a knack for wringing out the pomp and romance of historical menswear and then infusing it into streetwear that carries an anachronistic androgyny. This season he looked to sartorial codes throughout history—the preppy argyle of country clubs, the rugged denim of manual laborers, the ruffed collars of aristocracy—and transmuted them into a grab-bag of pieces that were modern in silhouette but baroque in fabrication.
Pistachio-colored argyle cardigans had artfully moth-eaten hems, tailored jeans were patched with velvet or pressed with a crease, and quilted gingham jackets had ruffs at the neck. A Puma collaboration yielded a track jacket that had so many buttons it looked Victorian. “Old clothes, whether aristocratic or workwear, were all made meticulously, and I’m incredibly inspired by that,” he added.
He titled the collection Sweet Riot: “It’s a riot, but in the Masu style, so it’s still sweet and gentle.” That’s something his small army of well-dressed fans can get behind.
