After showing off schedule for the past two seasons, Ssstein’s Kiichiro Asakawa is officially on the Paris schedule. His show this morning, held in the vaulted hall of the Musée des Arts et Métiers, established him further as one of Japan’s next generation of breakout talents, not to mention his knack for sumptuous, expensive-looking outerwear: Very few designers cut a better coat.
Backstage before the show, Asakawa was quietly animated. “This season we’ve focused more on capturing emotions and feelings, and the beautiful moments to be found in the everyday,” he said. He mentioned the feeling of dressing up for dinner with his wife on their anniversary, or the charm of an elderly couple out for a walk in the park: “I felt drawn to these slightly warmer aspects of life.”
That openness unlocked a new level of depth for the brand. Ssstein’s earlier collections were restrained to the point of being clinical, but lately it has found a softer groove. Cozy tweeds, artfully worn-in barn jackets, and woolly argyle knits paired with subtly twisted loose-fit jeans and roomy tailored trousers that swooshed down the runway. (Forget a power shoulder; Ssstein makes power pants.) Another standout: the big beautiful balmacaans with contrasting leather collars clasped at the throat. There was also a single black skirt, so swishily elegant that you wondered why there weren’t a couple more in the mix.
The autumnal pops of color—scarlet, mossy green, butter yellow—provided some sensible relief from the monochrome. “I noticed the way the leaves change from green to yellow to red to brown,” said Asakawa. “I wanted to express these things that I unconsciously find beautiful, matching the colors to the materials.”
That newfound sensitivity—combined with his sharp buyer’s eye for what people want to wear—sets him in good stead. Now a decade old, Ssstein has finally found its stride, and as Asakawa told Vogue Business recently, business is going well. After this morning’s show, we can assume it will go even better.
