Fall Trends - Page 5

Originally Posted by burningbright

Anyway, didn't mean to de-rail the thread with beard talk. I do agree, though, with most of what has been said thus far about fabrics and colors for the upcoming F/W.

Originally Posted by GoSurface

I wanna see more jewel tones.

Originally Posted by sho'nuff

db cropped peacoats and oversized toggle coats. yes. at least for me

Originally Posted by Makeshift_Robot

Creep FW 10 has both these things, they are wonderful.

Originally Posted by wiru

Not trying to twist your words, just trying to answer what you wrote. Anyway, my original comment was intentionally provocative, on the level of the ignorant broad-brush stuff that preceded it ('workwear' = garbage but junya = genius on a whole other level).

Here's the more subtle, incredibly tl;dr xeonox version:

In spring 08 Junya's silhouettes and some other key stylistic markers changed, conspicuously. Hems got shorter, jackets got shrunken, and footwear got chunky and British. This is Thom Browne influence. At the same time he adopted a bunch of workwear influences and launched collaborations with companies like Pointer and Post Overalls. Junya had been working with classic American and British clothing for years, but suddenly the version of 'classic America' he worked with was essentially the one laid down by Japanese repro and mid-market brands (which happened to be hitting the peak of its popularity). IMO his work the past few years takes this basic material and translates it into the language of a 'Paris collection.' I.e. high brow, avant-garde, conceptual. This is what I mean by taking trends pioneered by the Amekaji and mid-market brands and bringing them to the runway. It's certainly NOT derivative in the vein of Rick Owens/Chronicles of Never, but the influence is there to see. I don't think Junya tried to hide this -- he made his respect and admiration for both heritage makers and other 'Americana' designers obvious.

Pretty much everyone at the time noticed it too. I was in Tokyo at that point, and I can't remember how many Junya pieces I saw in 'Americana' spreads in magazines. Junya was right next to the rest of the workwear brands in select shops. At the very least, the industry expected their Junya customer and their workwear customer to be the same person.



English style and hunting clothing are both actually a big part of "Americana." Many Amekaji-type shops will have wax cotton, tweed, fair isle, cable knits, Tricker's and such. But it's sort of cumbersome to write out "the Anglo-American sport/outdoor/military/hunting clothing tradition" every time. It's very much part of the aesthetic laid out by repro and mid-market brands.



I agree with the first sentence completely. However, this is exactly what the mid-market brands do. They take vintage items and produce new clothing filtered through their own aesthetic sensibilities -- reconstructed, recontextualized, re-appropriated. Yes, Junya is different from any other brand. But what Daiki Suzuki does is different from what Nigel Cabourn does is different from what Takeshi Ohfuchi does is different from what White Mountaineering does. Do any of these labels put out "conventional" clothing? Junya is different, but not "intrinsically" or "totally" different. Only if being a high fashion designer necessarily confers intrinsic difference.

Junya's appropriations and re-imaginings are very overt, but the mid-market brands are not naively concerned with finding authenticity (if that's your implication?). They are very conscious of reworking and curating. Straight repro brands maybe not so much -- but then again, for all I know the guys at Warehouse see themselves as duck pant Pierre Mendards. Weird things are easy to find wherever you look. Some brands sell a nostalgia-tinged version of America (LVC, Ralph Lauren), but many do not (Nonnative, White Mountaineering, Needles). Again, simply pitting mid-market against designer is not the most illuminating way of making these distinctions.



Well, for jet this is obviously a strong value judgment, not just some analytical statement. I don't think you can seriously put Junya on one side (respectable designer) and all other "workwear" brands on the other (garbage). Junya is as much or more in dialog with other people working in the "workwear" area as he is with other Paris/New York runway designers. Look at what Junya himself says, look at the people he chooses to work with, and most importantly look at the clothes themselves. The kind of difference jet (and you?) wants to insist on privileges the price and perceived status of the clothing over any real aesthetic consideration.



Looked at the runway pics, seen pretty much every collection in stores the past few years, own a few pieces. I like Junya a lot! I just don't think that, among people engaging with the Anglo/American tradition, he is leading the way. Unless designers are obligated to be oblivious to the world, be unconcerned with selling clothes, and only follow the call of their own inner inspiration, it's not really a negative thing either.


inb4 colin powell

Originally Posted by Makeshift_Robot

Creep FW 10 has both these things, they are wonderful.

Originally Posted by JesseJB

Haven't these been trendy mainstays since 2005? Not that I don't like the look. I'm sticking with it.