Shinya Kozuka has landed in Europe. After nine shows in Japan, the Tokyo-based designer has been chomping at the bit to go international, and last night in Florence he was finally out of the gate. How did he get on?
Judging by the ebullient mood in the room, it landed well.
Blanketed with fake snow, the Fortezza da Basso (which, an organizer confided, had never previously been used for a fashion show) was transformed into a winter landscape. Wrapped up for the cold, the models came out with snow in their hair, and the first looks—black wool coats needle-punched with white to give the effect of fallen snow on the fabric—almost appeared grayscale in the cold white of the room, as “For Now I Am Winter” by Ólafur Arnalds played over the speakers.
Kozuka compiles the stories behind his collections while walking around Tokyo with a beer in his hand. This time he found himself captivated by the lone dropped gloves he sometimes spotted. He began to think of the gloves as lighthouses; beacons that guide the way home. “It might not make literal sense, but it might evoke empathy—something a machine can’t replicate,” he wrote in the show notes. And so models wore single furry mittens, and contrasting cobalt blue hands hung from knitted aprons or were needle-punched onto wool jackets.
These solitary walks, along with winter, the moon, and bright blue, are some of the recurring motifs Kozuka plays with each season. They were all incorporated into this well-edited outing, in a way that was clear for an audience that was mostly seeing his work for the first time. Toile de jouy illustrations appeared on scarves; folkish jacquards sang with texture across oversized shirts and culottes; and cobalt blue appeared on canvas aprons and work pants (a collaboration with Dickies). Most impressive was the knee-length coat in the penultimate look, which clattered with 1,300 buttons that depicted a moon, and took the team a full week to sew.
When asked to sum up his brand at a preview, Kozuka said: “My work is quite conceptual. It’s about storytelling, because fashion is not only clothes. It’s the sound, the scenes, the people. Everything together is fashion, which is why I call my concept Picturesque Scenery.”
There’s an argument to be had in menswear, which is currently full of nice product but not a lot of narrative, that there’s room for more romance and sensitivity. Kozuka provides that in spades, crucially along with some desirable, well-made clothing. He has a bright future ahead if he can keep building on that momentum.
After the show, Kozuka was high on adrenaline. “I listened to everyone clapping,” he said with a wide smile. “Hearing that, it gave me the confidence to go to the next step.” With this first international show now under his belt, the brand has plans to keep showing in Europe. When he returns to Tokyo and next embarks on one of his nighttime walks, beer in hand, his world will feel much larger.
