Diet Butcher Slim Skin. Spring 2020 RTW- Tokyo Fashion Week.

(Images from the designer and the public domain. Credited to the 

photographer/company where applicable: WWD )

In the most respectable way possible, I adore the lost-in-translation of Japanese to English descriptions.  To me, it highlights the anarchic and at times chaotic word structure that can be found in the English language, more so an ability to cut and shift sentence composition in a way that may make sense, but ultimately does not, although in its sincerity appears to signify a typographic relevancy via the translation.  Such is the label name for the brand “Diet Butcher Slim Skin” by the Japanese fashion designer Hisashi Fukatami. 

Fukatami's inculcated named brand has been around since the 1997 and is a relatively unknown label within its cult appeal, mostly selling on-line through its own distribution and other clothing retailers.  So, Fukatami is no overnight sensation and for his first runway show at Tokyo Fashion Week, since the inception of his brand he has delivered a solid Spring 2020 collection. With his show notes reflecting a connection between art and fashion, a themed collection with a collaboration between two Japanese artists: the calligraphy inspired graphic designer GUCCIMAZE and the prolific and very talented collage artist Kosuke Kawamura.  Who had just recently installed the 'Akira Art Wall Project' in Los Angeles, so to be shown in Milan next. Which, if anyone doesn't know, Akira is a animated Japanese classic of a Dystopian future; broken wolds, street gangs, military police and a strange kid with psychokinesis. My late father (🙏2019) took me to see the movie in 1989 at the Northcote (Melbourne, Australia) cinema. 

Fukatami has created a sleek and defined array, with a even mix of synthetic materials, wool and linen blends.  Bandanna styled neckties, with the said artists contributing prints, portraying a sophistication of the traditional cravat.  He has mixed up the formal and casual styles, to manifest a developed street style look.  That I like a lot, as it steers away from the tedium of reworked 90's styles, which are a rehash of late 1980s active wear looks. Which is refreshing, more so if designers, particularly the Japanese, upgrade and remodel the Western styles of yesterday, thus making the charm of reinterpretation as a necessity.  Rather than a novelty.