Junya Watanabe review...

Junya Watanabe seems to be in love with the idea of the ready-made—a piece of clothing that a whole collection can sometimes spin around in its many permutations. In recent years, season after season, he has presented something archetypal and iconic and, somehow, reinvigorated the view of it. During this process he has never bored the viewer or the wearer with the pieces' multitudinous forms; it's something of an achievement. Perhaps the greatest example of this was Watanabe's black leather jacket collection of Fall 2011, which also dealt with, in a hefty aside, the codified garments of punk. Quite a few people attempting to do punk collections this season should really read that one and weep. In fact, it appears that many have: Watanabe is one of the designers that has been most heavily borrowed from recently.

So today, at his own show, where Watanabe seemingly presented his own past collections as the ready-mades and decided to liberally lift from himself, there was a kind of cheeky meta-fashion. It was like a recent-hits compilation (and Watanabe's hits have a hefty dose of sampling) with a variety of remixes. Nevertheless, what he offered felt fresh, fun, and audacious today. He even accompanied the looks with high heels for the first time. They added to a sense of rebellion, maybe even a rebellion against the preconceived notions of Junya Watanabe.

There were hints of the reconfigured denim from Watanabe's Spring 2009 Africa collection, as well as his punk patchwork jeans from Fall 2011, here given a much bigger starring role. An additional spin on the trench also appeared again, this time seemingly cross-fertilized with the Perfecto, producing a profusion of zips. It all added up to a feeling of playfulness, and yet a strange profundity about the passing disposability of fashions.

If Rei Kawakubo is the queen of Paris fashion in terms of consistent innovation, then logic dictates that Junya Watanabe is the crown prince. Yet does a wider public quite realize this? Watanabe is one of the great contemporary designers; he's hardly an unknown, but he deserves a much broader audience. Hopefully, with this collection he will get it.

Charlie Le Mindu Review

"VIOLENCE - reads the sign which is strapped to the head of a naked model, her chest is dripping with blood. Strobes fill the room and a raucous Kap Bambino soundtrack blasts from the speakers. Instantaneously gripping, we would expect nothing less from Le Mindu.

The show entitled Berlin Syndrome unveils the repressed sexual underground scene of WWII. The designer explores extremes of femininity and sodomy. Stained lace dresses are beautifully constructed with ruffles and off white fur trimming. Pearl peaked hats are worn with transparent PVC and of course towering platforms.

Raw, gritty and theatrical Le Mindu captures all elements of the frivolous, fearless counter culture from the madams in the brothels to the punks on the streets. Hair ranged from sharp blonde wigs, red and black spray painted mohawks, and shaved heads tagged with CUNT.

In your face shock tactics are employed, yet this is not to undermine his masterful creations. For the finale models walk out to the sound of squealing animals, very Marquis de Sade and haute charcuterie Le Mindu emerges in a blood stained apron."

Junya Watanabe..

• ·      Born in Fukushima, Japan in 1961
• ·       He went on to attend Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, graduating in 1984.
• ·       He began his apprenticeship at Comme des Garcons, the company run by legendary Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo, as a patternmaker.
• ·       In 1987, he was promoted to chief designer of Tricot knitwear line and then moved on to design for the Comme Des Garcons Homme line.
• ·       in 1992, he has worked under his own name as part of Comme des Garcons.
• ·       He started his own line under the Comme Des Garcons name called ‘Junya Watanabe Comme Des Garcons’ in 1993 and began showing in Paris that same year.
• ·       In 1994, Junya Watanable launched his own label. A few days after his own collection, he presented the collection for his friend Rei Kawakubo.
• ·       His designs do reflect the principles of his mentor Kawakubo, but he takes a personal approach to his garments.
• ·       He gives his clothes an irregular touch through random tucking and pleating or ruching.
• ·       Glamour, sound and colour are notably absent from his design shows, and he keeps a vast distance between his models walking on the catwalk, so that the viewers can give full attention to each design as it appears.
• ·       In 1995, his collection was all boiled wool and black leather with tattoos on the models
• ·       In 1997 he put his own stamp on florals, models seemingly cocooned in Japanese style prettiness but their sculptural half-dresses were conventional from the front and cut away at the back to reveal baggy embroidered trousers. Every outfit was crowned with a folded turban-style wig.
• ·       In 1999, he has given cape sleeves and an uneven hemline to a white Indian cotton multi-layered dress and the model said that suddenly when worn, all the fabric makes sense and it feels much different on a body than when it is seen on a hanger.
• ·       He is particularly interested in synthetic and technologically advanced textiles and fabrics as found in his spring/summer 2001 line but also uses more traditional materials such as cotton in his spring/summer 2003 collection.

• ·      Watanabe is often considered to be a ‘techno couture’ designer, creating unusually structured clothes out of modern, technical materials.

Junya Watanabe Collection timeline from 2002. 

(Taken from vogue UK website)

Vauxhall Fashion Scout..

Subculture: Hip hop presentation

Here are the slide for our presentation for the hip hop subculture;