![]() This moment marked the beginning of luxury fashion streetwear. In due course, Takahashi put on his famous ‘Scab’ show for Paris Fashion Week SS03 and, henceforth, the Western world became obsessed with the brand and the designer. In a full-circle moment, Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo was one of the first purchasers, which quickly led to a friendship between the two designers.Īfter eight years, Kawakubo had told just about everyone in the fashion scene about UNDERCOVER (she really was, and still is his biggest fan) and finally persuaded Takahashi to flaunt his designs outside of Tokyo he decided Paris was the fashion destination he resonated with the most. Takahashi Jun’s fashion is not born out of an excessively intellectualized agenda. The looks were a huge upgrade to the designer’s previous collections in every way: he took streetwear to high-fashion levels by using unexpected cuts, forward-thinking prints and manifestly luxe fabrics. The first comprehensive book on the work of Jun Takahashi of UNDERCOVER, an icon of Harajuku streetwear and the presumptive heir to the heavy mantle of Japanese deconstruction. ![]() As one can imagine, the two were already well connected within the Ura-Harajuku area, so it didn’t take long for the store to become one of the city’s most influential fashion hubs.Ī year after setting up Nowhere, Takahashi put on his first womenswear runway show at The Garage in Daikanyama for Tokyo Fashion Week. Named Nowhere, Takahashi launched the store alongside his school friend Nigo (as in Nigo the DJ, record producer and founder of Bape and Human Made). This led to the designer dreaming of his own retail space and subsequently setting up a store, circa 1993. Initially, Takahashi’s collections largely consisted of customized pieces created from vintage finds before he knew it, prominent Japanese stores such as Billy’s in Tokyo began to stock his collections. From inception, UNDERCOVER collections have been informed by rebellion, which explains the label’s ‘We Make Noise, Not Clothes’ slogan and the gothic undertones of the aesthetic. (Productive, we know.) The designer combined his interests and influences with avant-garde notions that were circling in the industry at the time to create a brand-new look. In 1988, Takahashi graduated from Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, and just two years later, he founded UNDERCOVER. Interestingly enough, Takahashi only started to pay attention to Kawakubo after being dragged by a friend to a Comme des Garçons show. However, there's another side to Takahashi. Drawing from inspirations like the punk movement, the brand had a deconstructed streetwear look. Though he was only a student at the time, he'd already founded the influential brand Undercover. To be specific, he did this by joining punk rock tribute band the Tokyo Sex Pistols as lead vocalist adopting the nickname ‘Jonio’ to pay respects to one of his heroes, Johnny Rotten tattooing his arms up (which, FYI is an act that’s frowned upon in Japan) and, showing dedicated admiration for the work of punk designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo. Jun Takahashi has been a force in the world of design since 1993. Born in the historic Japanese city of Kiryū in 1969, the streetwear designer deviated from the traditions of his culture by immersing himself in the global punk movement. Welcome back to Paris, Jun.At heart, Jun Takahashi – founder of UNDERCOVER – is a punk. If you blurred your eyes, you might say they resembled a scarred tomato a crumple of colored tin foil a dandelion pappus dyed blue, and a rotting pumpkin. The show climaxed with four bulbous minidresses. There were some offbeat constructions wherein fragments of the same garment protruded from the waist or hip - hence an extra set of spaghetti straps on slip dresses, and an extra waistband dangling from the hips of pants - which felt tricky. Scatterings of gemstone embroideries elevated chinos neon colors lit up tailoring. The slashes - on boxy T-shirts and bib-fronted tuxedo shirts, perfectly paired with loose jeans or black slacks respectively - offered easy entry points to this gothic-leaning brand. It was also chockablock with cool and covetable clothes, from witty casualwear - statement T-shirts with the words Love, Dream or Angel surgically slashed - to fluid pantsuits, their multiple wounds ringed with frothy lace and small fabric flowers. In spite of the solemn venue - the American Cathedral on Avenue George V - the melancholy soundtrack, and more slashed fabric than in the entire “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, Jun Takahashi’s latest collection charmed and delighted.
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