A star is born.
Smoking a Hi-Lite cigarette after his first show at Pitti this afternoon, Soshi Otsuki was bleary-eyed. He had arrived in Florence that morning from Milan, where he’d been for model casting, and had managed to snatch a couple of hours sleep on the bus journey. Exhausted but happy, he’d pulled it off. “It seems like it was well received, so I’m relieved,” he said.
On the back of his recent LVMH Prize win, the Tokyo designer’s first show outside of Japan came with lofty expectations that could be felt in the refettorio of the Santa Maria Novella as we waited for the show to start. Once it did, it was clear the LVMH jury had made the right decision. His lookbooks, which for the past three seasons have gone viral for both the way they spark the nostalgia of Japan’s bubble era salarymen and their penchant for Armani tailoring, had finally been breathed into life.
Still, it wasn’t enough for more of the same, and Otsuki was conscious of the need to carve out his own identity in a stronger way. “I’ve been asked about Armani so much in interviews over the past few months that I’ve become a little neurotic about it,” he laughed backstage. To break free from those comparisons and constraints, he worked with stylist Alister Mackie to bring what Otsuki called “a touch of ’80s flair, that still felt modern.” The considerable resources that the LVMH win has afforded Otsuki also means an expanded network to call upon. “I was able to incorporate the opinions of people who aren’t accustomed to Japanese salaryman culture,” he explained.
As usual with Otsuki, it was in the small details and fabrications that the collection shone best: humongous peak lapels were curled, cardigans were cropped and ribbed at the waist to tighten the silhouette, and trousers were given reams of belt loops or draped with so many pleats that they hung like curtains. One look featured a trompe l’oeil jumpsuit of a button-up shirt and trousers. Otsuki also worked to yarn-dye suiting fabric with black and beige to create a new gray, in an update to his sewer-rat power suits. The bolder colors and textures—orange cable knit sweaters, thick, diagonally-waled corduroy in forest green and brown, toffee leather suits, and smooth pink shirting—brought further dimension. The collection felt like a genuinely new chapter for tailoring that was not Japanese nor Italian, but something fresh and new.
Also notable were the sashiko suit and jeans, made in collaboration with Proleta Re Art, a Japanese brand known for its painstakingly hand-stitched fabrics reinterpreted into streetwear. Other collabs included a quarter-zip with Asics (sneakers are apparently on the way), cigarette holder rings by artist Kota Okuda, and shirts with Spanish shirtmaker Camisas Monolo. These partnerships make up a concerted but careful effort by Otsuki to expand the footprint of his brand, and position him as a designer serious about building a legacy for himself.
The response to all of it was electric. When the show was over, the crowd swarmed to get a look at this exciting new tailoring talent who had come all the way from Japan. “Beyond! It was beyond!” one show-goer air-kissed. Otsuki, smiling his phlegmatic smile into the flash of the cameras, took it all in his stride.
