Backstage before his show, Yosuke Aizawa said via a translator that he was looking for a new life experience through clothing, a concept that goes beyond surface styling to bring added meaning to the products one chooses to wear.
Titled Unplugged, the spring collection was partially inspired by the mountains, prairies, and shores the designer has yet to see, bringing another facet to a label informed by a life split between Tokyo and the mountains of Nagano. An overlong lineup of outdoorsy layer-ables drew on Aizawa’s personal history; for example, a lion print borrowed from an art book he discovered as a student, shown here on a windbreaker and on a shirt and shorts worn under a graphic jacquard sweater in sunbaked hues. In a nod to the label’s name and an ongoing fascination with snowfall, white silhouettes and textured knits referenced the view from the designer’s mountain retreat and a new boutique hotel-slash-home down the way called Not a Hotel, for which he recently completed the interior design.
Technological advances have completely transformed the way he works day-to-day in terms of access to information as well as fabric development and production, the designer said. That led him to push further into functional patterns and resulted in a black technical windbreaker with snap-down flaps and secret zip breast pockets for keeping essentials safe and hands free to steer a car or motorbike at altitude. Wrinkle-free pants came in technical nylon discreetly set with a stretchy panel at the groin. A coat with a blurred motif in inky shades of black, white, and gray looked like it might have been tie-dyed; in fact, it was a rendering in jacquard of traditional Japanese calligraphy paper.
White Mountaineering’s robust footwear program includes partnerships with Reebok, Rig Footwear, and Umbro, the Italian sneaker maker that this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. White Mountaineering’s base will snap those up, but whether the brand needs to travel all the way to Paris to reach that demographic is open to debate.
