Jun Takahashi is an under-stater, and most certainly not an over-sharer. "Clothes for women" was his explanation of his collection backstage after today s runway show, his first after an absence of three years (he opted for presentations and private appointments in the interim). When pressed, the designer offered, "It s for women, very sophisticated and feminine. What women want to wear."
Certainly women want to wear trim camel coats, as they do skinny cardigans, leather skirts, sailor sweaters, chunky rib-knit tunics, and marabou-trimmed cocktail dresses. All of the above were present and accounted for, but Takahashi, even at his most game, won t ever offer them without subversion. What he did here—and what s he s done frequently over the course of his career—is trompe l oeil in the truest sense. As you watch a model walk by, you re forced to sit up and pay attention to parse the familiar-seeming clothes with all their front-to-back split fabrics, zippers that dead-end in the middle of nowhere, and mash-up hybridizations. The mind wanders. And then, Oh, was that anorak made of drab chiffon with felt panels? Takahashi showed a few looks that echoed his droopy twin collection of Spring 2004, like a perfectly bourgeois beige coat over a tight-collared pink polo and gray trousers in flat fabrics, then a second version in a fuzzier texture. As if we need reminding that all isn t as it seems.
What was beautiful was a motorcycle jacket with a marabou trim unzipped at the bottom to give you the silhouette of a medieval pannier; ditto the Arabic-inspired floral motif rendered in felt appliqué. One thing s for sure, Takahashi s clothes are never easy to crack, but it s satisfying to try your hand when you see them on a runway.
