Children of the Discordance. Spring 2020 - Tokyo Fashion Week.

(Images from the designer and the public domain. Credited to the photographer/company where applicable:  WWD)

The newer and smaller brands that are now duplicating the thrift style looks to which the bigger more established fashion houses, like Balenciaga, Gucci and Burberry have embraced, maybe ahead of the game.  If they can offer a discounted labeled aesthetic to mix with the assorted second hand looks.  Hideaki Shikama the creative director behind his brand Children of the Discordance, who started his label in 2011, from a background in textiles and retail management skills.  Attaching his knowledge of fabrics and business skills as the main forte in establishing the brand name.  Shikama has focused an attention towards sourcing vintage fabrics in designing and creating his seasonal ranges.

In this focus of promoting an exclusivity with the namesake, Shikama has been able to reflect his Spring 2020 collection as a poignant reflection of renewed street wear styles.  Removing some of the 1990s garish and cheapen sports looks.  He hae evoked a sophistication and longevity with this newer collection, avoiding being pigeonholed via the throw around catchphrase of sustainable fashion, whilst at the same time utilizing dead stock materials from around the world.  Shikama is clearly aiming his collection/s at the desire of younger consumers and their keen eye in stylization and hunger for brand names.  Beginning, in its relevancy, of a new trend going into 2020 with the fusing of recycled looks and first hand pieces, that has started in the West, as a dressing down and dressing up via luxury items, all the while buying second hand clothing.  Setting down the bases for a unique trend to evolve, which in its formation has been hard to pinpoint the origin of its manifestation, except to say it does away with the 70's, 80's and 90's rehash styles, as a complete ensemble, that the major fashion brands have been trying to source in representing an embodiment of newer street styles.  Sans the hunting of labels of upmarket brands via Thrift Stores.  This is not a so called anti-fashion movement, but rather something else.  

Children of the Discordance Spring 2020 array for Tokyo Fashion Week has laid out an eclectic mix, yet it also struggles defining the more functional styles. There are some heavy set materials on display, which maybe have been textile offcuts from either wall drapes or carpets.  Admirable in using thicker dead stock materials, but as a yarn they are notoriously very difficult to style.  Except when re-cut and stitched onto other pieces namely coats and jackets, but it can retain its denseness as a crafted fashion piece.  Which, when displayed as a runway show, can look ill fitted in the models.