Julius men’s Fall 2017. Paris Fashion Week

Tatsuro Horikawa created JULIUS in 2001 as a collaborative art project, from that point it then evolved into a fashion house under Horikawa’s watchful eye. His talent in fashion design is the ability to create evocation, in combination as a curator of visual and aural soundscapes. For Paris Fashion Week Fall 2017 Men’s, the theme for the JULIUS show was titled Neuromantika. A homage to the author William Gibson and his novel Neuromancer written in 1984, with an overall influence of a post dystopian cyberpunk ethos of the mid 1980s, with “1984” displayed on some of the garments. The fusion of a cyberpunk aesthetic with Horikawa also drawing on influences from Japanese futuristic animation, namely Akira (1988) directed and written by Katsuhiro Otomo. Which in turn borrowed heavily from the French science fiction comic Métal Hurlant (1974). The admirable aspect of Japanese modern culture is it’s ability to meld influences from both the West and Eastern perspectives.

JULIUS Fall 2017 and also Winter 2018 showcases an avant-garde future, less black and Gothic as previous collections. Rather a neutral and even toned palette, with cream, light green and browns, Akabeni red, blues intermixed with achromatic black and whites. Cropped biker jackets over draped, oversized shirts and jerseys. Accessories as belts that hang down, a show of nonconformity and rebellion. A reworking of traditional standards. Tough cyberpunk Neo-Tokyo styles, that can also be seen with the models hair, Japanese pageboy looks, notably influenced by Katsuhiro Otomo’s (Akira) character Shotaro Kaneda. Padded leather and heavily lined jackets are shown for Horikawa’s Winter 2018 collection, an indication that he will return to the darker avant-garde styles.

 A dystopian future may already be upon us, Tatsuro Horikawa doesn’t portray a grimness in this transition into the new, his JULIUS Fall 2017 collection has a positive and focused display. Embracing change, learning from cultures, implementing ideas and concepts to build a foundation from destruction.