This has been a standout season for progressive tailoring, packed with different proposals for the direction in which the most classical current form of masculine attire is set to swing next. None, though, was quite as radical as Junya Watanabe’s manifesto this morning. His position was that the jacket should be unified with the pant, and he demonstrated it with a series of archetypal jackets that were grafted at the skirt with what appeared to be unstitched pants, creating gently surrealist morning coats. Later he added outerwear, which at first appeared to be classically fabricated and constructed overcoats. A second look revealed that the arms had often been embedded into the body of the garment.
A transgenerational gravity was created by constructing newly classical garments in forms associated with menswear genres and in collaborations with brands that have a younger demographic. As well as a Palace baseball cap, this show contained what is surely the first ever Palace opera cloak. The closing look, one of 12 collaborations here with Levi’s, saw a pair of washed black 501s grafted into an evening jacket. What looked like a Y2K-era Levi’s Red work jacket was morphed with an old school twisted jean into a gown. A black Carhartt chore jacket and work pant were blended in a similar procedure. Other collaborations this time round included with Brooks Brothers and New Balance.
“I am reinterpreting men’s suits with my own ideas,” said Watanabe to Vogue Business before this show. In the press note delivered after it, he added: “I wish for men of different generations to wear these suits.” As we watched his reimagined tailoring pass in front of us, plaster dust kicked up by the models floated in shifting rivulets through the spotlight beams that illuminated this designer’s enlightening runway.
