Since his spring 2024 ready-to-wear show, Jun Takahashi has imbued a refreshing sense of lightness into his womenswear. There’s been sheer layering, billowing volumes, unlined tailoring, and outfits flattened into roomy dresses. It’s as if Takahashi has been purging his line of the superfluous, but without doing away with his delicate magpie eye for ornamentation.
Last month, Undercover menswear returned to the runway for the first time since January of 2020. Backstage, through a translator, Takhashi spoke of his ideals of a borderless world and how his collection manifested that thought by melding together a variety of “tribe” signifiers. The headline, however, was how weightless the collection looked as it walked down the runway. It was boneless, the whole thing, but most memorably the tailoring. That concept of invertebrate construction carried over into this resort menswear lineup with back and side vents in jackets, wide-gauge knits, and stiff yet spacious fabrications. Briefly commenting on the collection via email, Takahashi said that the intention of these construction features was to make his clothes lighter and more dynamic, but that he still employed “rough-textured” fabrics rather than anything with too “gentle” of a feel.
Takahashi had another thing on his mind, as well. He explained that he wanted to express the spirit of punk. The patches, graphics, and studs are the most literal evidence of its influence on the lineup, yet most punk of it all perhaps is Takahashi’s commitment to ease.