Shinya Kozuka’s lonely commute back home from his atelier in Tokyo must be a fruitful source of inspiration.
After fall’s lost gloves encounters, which inspired the moody show Kozuka staged in Florence as Pitti Uomo’s guest designer, the Japanese designer sought to bring a blurred vision of the world to his inaugural show on the Milan men’s calendar.
Quite literally, he was inspired by the occasional experience of walking across places he knows by heart without wearing prescription contact lenses.
This would always yield new prospectives on familiar worlds. For spring, this translated into fading, watercolor-like landscape prints of his Tokyo neighborhood — vaguely inspired by Uta Barth photography — appearing on mint green fluid pajama silhouettes, Bermuda shorts and overshirts, the latter slashed at the back at the center to reveal the spine or a handsome panel knit, the views of the city further fading on the left hand side crafted from sheer organza.
More diaphanous, see-through pieces included billowing mint parkas in paper-thin nylon, and organza overpants layered atop tailored shorts and trousers, oftentimes embroidered with sparrows, whose voice reminds Kozuka of a traditional whistling song he used to listen to as a young boy.
Textured brushstrokes were hand-painted on duster coats with high side slits and work jumpsuits done in sartorial wools, while the silhouettes were more grounded and wearable even if they were done in deceptive fabrics or techniques, like patchwork, crinkly fabrics and tie-dye.
Many of the looks were topped by gorgeous headwear by Stephen Jones.
“Working in fashion it often feels as though we are constantly being asked for something new … Trying to find that newness I’ve often [just] adjusted my focus,” Kozuka said backstage after the show.
His collections often embed nonlinear storytelling, informed by intimate thoughts and mundane, routine circumstances. It’d be interesting to join him on one of those walks home and see the world through his eyes.
