Kozaburo Akasaka men’s Spring 2019 – New York Fashion Week

(Images from Vogue.com and wwd.com and the public domain. All rights. Used in promotion of the designer.)

To be honest, Kozaburo Akasaka is a  designer I know little about.  Which, when studying fashion and the designers old and the new.  It is always exciting to come across a newer designer entering the fashion world or be it industry which is awash with designers (more so conglomerate companies) and the clothes that they create.  To be unique and stand out is a hard task, it requires an attention to detail and individual bases to exceed, without relying on expectations.  Passion and sacrifice go hand in hand.  But in the end, the accomplishment is defining oneself within the creative self. Which is a purity that is, in someways, beyond words.

Akasaka has titled his Spring 2019 collection "Transcend" noted with some of the other designers for their Spring collections, there is a feeling that spirituality and the fusion of East and West traditionalism of the spiritual becoming a trend moving into 2019.  Of course, one has to be careful in aligning what a fashion trend means to the ethereal beliefs of the self and our place in Universe. Contradictions can be found, yet, under Buddhism (which I believe Akasaka is closer to as a spiritual connection) - these contradictions can be healthy.  

The collection is photographed and styled within a bamboo setting, beautifully contrasted against the faded light of dusk, before the twilight.   So there is a darkened resonance to the imagery, fading out the faces of the models.   Creating the mystic of the stranger.  Also seen with Boremy Viguie’s Spring 2019  collection.  High waisted pants which hold a distinctive and mature style, yet not confined to conservative styling.  Rather, breezy and layered attire, reflecting with an element of defined aesthetics. Noting the Japanese scripts and fusing of West and East dynamics.  Linen and burlap (Hessian) pressed and set into crafted styles.  Also focusing on a resilience and toughness, so the subtle has been toned back.  Although not directly a blunt collection, it portrays a concentration.  This may be the designer offering a durable fixture.  Clothing that outlasts, even the person wearing it. 

Kozaburo Akasaka's Spring 2019 collection plays with dualities of what  dark and light represents and how the two interact within an individual's own perception.  Darkness must be faced to understand the light and vice versa.  A personal journey of realization.  As the great Ch'an Master Huangbo (d850) once said. "Many people are afraid to empty their own minds lest they plunge intro the Void.  Ha!  What they don't realize is that their own mind is the Void."