Mihara Yasuhiro has bittersweet memories of wearing his brother’s hand-me-downs. He liked the sense of possibility when he wore adult clothes, and he also recalls the first time he tagged along to a disco, when he was about 11-years-old.
“When I entered I felt like I had stepped into this glittery, glossy, nocturnal world, and that really impressed me,” he said through an interpreter during a backstage interview. “Now that I am an adult, when I look at that same nocturnal world I feel like it’s really childish, so I wanted to put a sense of that into my creations.”
The fall collection, entitled “Wobbler Part Four” continues the “Big Silhouette” series the designer introduced for spring 2024. It was steeped in nostalgia, and boosted by a squad of “Paris” cheerleaders who resurged variously in a revisited MA1 military blouson, a cape-like khaki and orange coat inspired by English jackets, or bombers deliberately blown up, processed and faux-aged to look like vintage. That is a subject close to the designer’s heart: his studio and home are filled with military pieces, tailoring and workwear picked up in Paris, Italy, and especially Koenji in Tokyo (the best for rare finds, he said). “I think I am the designer with the most vintage clothes, next to Nigel Cabourn,” he offered.
Further along, a series of pieces in glossy faux-enameled leather, paired with chunky knits in seashell hues, made a strong statement for both genders. Real leather pieces for men and women came courtesy of a collaboration with the Japanese brand Isamu Katayama Backlash. Shiny, dark, tinsely statement pieces like coats or a one-sleeved stole brought the fun, leavening the nostalgia with another suggestion: maybe the antidote to these fast-changing times is that one should never really grow up. Maybe the best thing to do is just dress up and go out.