![]() ![]() Conceived as a shop within a shop – it is housed within the Parco department store in Shibuya – stepping into the store feels a bit like entering Takahashi’s own private dream landscape. Originally opening in Tokyo in 2013 as a concept shop specialising in exclusive items, MADSTORE quickly gained fans overseas. “From there, I’ll go deep into that theme, and expand out the worldview and story of the idea in what I design.” “I start off by finding something that feels fresh and exciting to me, and then centring the idea for a collection around that,” he says of his creative process. Collections for Undercover have drawn on everything from prints of the 1922 film Nosferatu, to Ms Cindy Sherman’s photography, to Neon Genesis Evangelion, for which he most recently made padded jackets and light-up hoods inspired by the anime’s cyborg mecha suits. Riffing off an otaku-like obsession with pop culture in his work, Takahashi is a cultural kleptomaniac, taking a theme for each collection and running with it. Speaking to MR PORTER over email, the man behind the Tokyo-based brand Undercover is that increasingly rare example of a fashion designer who, decades into his career, is still working – successfully, no less – under his own name. Moreover the Undercoverism men’s line was created for the fall / winter 2021 collection, a label designed “for men of the next generation who empathize with the” ism “of the Undercover brand”.“I apologise if this comes across as egotistical, but I have never once tried to meet the expectations or requests of other people,” says Mr Jun Takahashi. Parallel to the show, in fact, the brand immediately put on sale a selection of limited items from it. Pierpaolo Piccioli defined him as “always unpredictable in the short circuits of things, with a cultured way of doing streetwear, which is full of references”.Īfter 19 years of shows in Paris Undercover returned to Japan for the men’s and women’s fashion shows of the fall / winter 2021 collection, due to the pandemic restrictions. It’s a theatrical collection, traveling between past and future. The following year, the Italian fashion house Valentino collaborated with the Japanese brand on the fall-winter 2019/20 collection. ![]() The menswear collections represent a turning point for Undercover, with the exception of two special fashion shows set up during Pitti Uomo, the first in 2009 and in January 2018. After the last show in Paris, in fact, only the men’s collections will be exhibited during the fashion week, while women’s wear will be presented exclusively in the showroom. In 2018 Jun Takahashi decided to stop the women’s clothing fashion shows, focusing exclusively on menswear. Titled “Undercover” it contains a preface by Suzy Menkes and over 300 photographs. In 2016 Takahashi published a book about his creative approach and the history of Undercover published by Rizzoli New York. ![]() The designer, who won the Japanese award sponsored by the Mainichi newspaper for the second time after 2001, is the fourth to receive the double awards after Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto. In 2013 Jun Takahashi received the first prize of the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix, now at its 31st edition. ![]() The Nikelab x Undercover collaboration returned for a second capsule collection in 2015, complete with clothing and shoes. Undercover began the new decade with a collaboration with Nike, interpreting Nike garments for a winter capsule collection. In 2005, Canon asked Takahashi to create a line of limited edition camera cases. Undercover is a very appreciated brand by international designers such as Miuccia Prada, Rei Kawakubo and by the writer Suzy Menkes, who recently defined Takahashi as “the essence of Japanese cool”. These range among flower bouquets, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, taxidermy and Japanese manga art. Takahashi’s strengths are its ability to interpret street fashion and the suggestions that inspire it. Undercover is a Japanese brand created in 1994 by Jun Takahashi. UNDERCOVER, JUN TAKAHASHI’S STREET FASHION BRAND ![]()
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