3 Japanese Brands to Know 

Words by Tony Wilkes

“Something happened there,” designer Yohji Yamamoto said of his Paris debut in 1981. “For European people, it was like a new movement arrived... Because I wasn’t the only one. Another designer did the same thing.” That is the visionary Rei Kawakubo – founder of Comme des Garçons, among many things. Together the designers, both from Japan, created a fashion revolution, upending Europe’s approach to colour, fabric and cut. To mark their arrival in Menswear on the Second Floor, we present three Japanese brands to have on your radar, plus the best new pieces to add to your wardrobe this season.

The creative process at Comme des Garçons goes something like this: Rei Kawakubo begins by describing the collection’s key piece through a brief, abstract riddle. Past clues have taken the form of a scribble or mysterious phrase like ‘inside-out pillowcase’. The design team’s mission is to transform this concept into a garment – a process they call ‘catch ball’ – and, eventually, a collection.

Comme des Garçons’ seminal Paris debut in 1981 recalled the reception of Stravinsky (his music caused a riot) or Picasso’s Cubist portraits. In a fashion world of ostentation and scorching glamour, Kawakubo unveiled a collection intentionally destroyed. This season’s Homme Plus arrivals may be recognisably structured, but they remain set apart by the same provocative hallmarks: warped seams, uncommon proportions and brilliantly subversive cuts. “When you’re just comfortable with what you’re wearing, you don’t have new thoughts,” Kawakubo once said in a rare interview. “I want people to feel something and think about who they are.”

In 1995, The New Yorker ran a sketch of a tuxedoed man chatting with a woman in a crimped gown. The caption read: “Are you in a Miyake or did you just sleep in your dress?” Such is the fame of Issey Miyake’s signature pleats, the foundation of the late, great designer’s Homme Plissé line. A byword for artistry and innovation, Miyake unveiled his technique in 1988 – engineered in such a way as to be machine-washable and require no ironing, all while delivering the lightness and ease of comfortable loungewear. “Design is born out of research,” he famously said. “The ideas must contain life, and be energised with living.”

Titled ‘Up, Up and Away’, designer Satoshi Kondo’s latest Homme Plissé Issey Miyake collection is inspired by the wind. Fabrics are sheer and lightweight, proportions are voluminous – conceived to capture the freedom of air in motion. Elsewhere, the brand’s suiting is a favourite of creatives and editors, easily worn with a simple T-shirt and sneakers, while its pleated staples have also been discovered by a new generation of fashion connoisseurs demanding style and comfort. In 1982, Miyake was the first fashion designer to appear on the cover of Artforum. In another 40 years, his work still provides the great satisfaction of wearing a masterpiece.

When Yohji Yamamoto showed his first collection in New York, a year after his Paris debut, The New York Times style reporter John Duka called it “something of a revelation”. Having cut his teeth in his mother’s dress shop in Tokyo, Yamamoto is now heralded as a master of tailoring – and among the greatest designers of the century. Aside from his innovative cutting, he is equally known for his signature palette of black. So much so that, in the 1980s, the brand’s devotees were dubbed Karasu Zoku or ‘crow tribe’.

“I strongly believe in craftsmanship and the human hand,” Yamamoto told the Victoria and Albert Museum, marking his solo exhibition. This season, the designer combines comfortable streetwear with the razor-sharp skills of couture. Tailoring is reimagined by way of artful cuts and the removal of lining – creating pieces that are structured but comfortably light – while manifesto-like inscriptions in English, French and Japanese take inspiration from the beauty of ink on paper. The result, says the brand, are clothes that “liberate the body as well as the soul”.