Junya Watanabe joined the list of designers (which includes Dilara and Schiaparelli) playing with human hair in their collections. For Junya this meant chic sculptured tops made out of wigs – the weft part of the wig creating spiderweb shapes on the garments. And it looked so good.
But that wasn’t all from the king of deconstruction. Junya presented a dynamic collection of expressionist designs through abstract architectural shapes. The triangular prisms we saw in Fall ‘24 made their comeback – this time subverting classic trench coats and velvet dresses. Jackets (trenches and bikers) were made out of cubes, prisms, spikes and other origami constructions – one biker had boots attached to it.
Junya blew up MA-1 bombers and built them into puffer vests, capes and a dress, and distorted the Wednesday Addams uniform of Peter Pan-collared velvet dresses. He really went hard with the sculpted shapes, but he kept it low-key with the bottoms. Most looks had a slim bootcut pant (in blacks, browns, fur and snake print) to complement the main character of the top half.
Junya is building on himself. The collection felt like an evolution from his Spring and Fall ‘24, taking elements from his archive (like the spikes and the prisms) and borrowing from constructivist and cubist art movements to create avant-garde sculptures of garments that play on his usual punk aesthetic. He’s just not done playing with shapes, and we’re not done watching.
Featured images Getty Images©
More on Culted
See: Losercore might be the path to cool
See: Sarah Burton makes her Givenchy debut, but does it measure up to her McQueen?
