Junya Watanabe Fall 2023 - Paris Fashion Week.
The urban outerwear trend continues on into 2023, as fashion designers ramp up their looks for 2024 buyers, while we're all crossing over into a very uncertain time. Not just for the fashion industry, but for society in general. So, one could read into this trend of durable, urban mountaineering styles that appear to be also representing a combative attire. Akin to the dystopian looks of the last 10 years that from time-to-time appeared, and as quickly disappeared from the runway. But, now it seems that the imprint of these fictional concepts from popular culture, could very much be materializing before our eyes.
The Japanese fashion designer Junya Watanabe is no stranger to his conceptualization of the dystopic. While orchestrating a reflective homage to the punk styles of the late 1970s, Watanabe has managed to create a solid foundation for his signature label over the last three decades, persistently showcasing his collections at Paris fashion Week. And his Fall 2023 array very much covers those aesthetics of social and environmental durability.
In tune with the calamity that is occurring from all sides globally, fashion offers a reflective expression or at least the possibility of what could be a new counter culture emerging, that by all definition still remains allusive. There is no revolution, just yet. And despite facing a Cold War part 2, extreme weather events and an economy that has and continues to fall apart after the pandemic. Maybe, we can utilize this gloom and doom. View it as a creative renewal. A positive, rather than a negative.
Watanabe's homage to rebellious attire from the last forty years doesn't seem as evident with his latest collection, rather he has structured a collection that rebuttals our present timeline, in all of its disarray. Utilizing mostly synthetic materials, which are a lot more environmentally friendly than cotton and wool. And for the record, I still wear a Gortex jacket that I bought in 1997, it's 26 years old. The material remains intact, apart from the seals that have perished. Watanabe Fall stylizations offer that enduring protection against the turmoil of our world.
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(A.Glass 2023)
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