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Interview | Sentimental JOURNEY with Junya Watanabe

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  • ahlefeldt
    Senior Member
    • May 2008
    • 621

    Interview | Sentimental JOURNEY with Junya Watanabe



    For several seasons now, Japanese designer Junya Watanabe has been taking some of our most iconic Western brands, retooling them in his Tokyo workshop, and sending them back out into the world looking a lot less like the everyday apparel of a typical American dude and a lot more like the sophisticated, preternaturally bright and graphic garb of a globe-trotting gentleman. This season’s collection is no different, except that the overarching theme itself is travel (at his shows, the models carried vintage suitcases down the runway to the Ringo Starr track “Sentimental Journey”). For Spring, Watanabe collaborated with revered brands like Brooks Brothers, Levi’s, and Lacoste, transforming stock pieces into reversible, two-in-one outfits that befit any man taking a trip with limited space in his luggage. Safari jackets turned into sport coats, jean jackets morphed into blazers—for a guy who admits to traveling very little, Watanabe is looking out for the itinerant among us. We asked the famously tight-lipped designer five questions on how he operates.

    INTERVIEW: Traveling was the inspiration for your menswear collection this season. Did it feel like it was just time to hit the road?

    JUNYA WATANABE: When I design menswear, it’s important for me to consider where you wear the clothes and what purpose they serve. This season, I started off with the idea of “wear it two ways,” or, reversible clothes. Then as I thought about what scenes you would wear them in, I came up with travel.

    INTERVIEW: Is it more important today that men’s clothes can travel? That they are less precious and more accommodating to a million different situations and time zones?

    JW: It’s actually nonsense to link menswear and travel. But it is important that you have a purpose when you design menswear. Also, I think it’s fun that you can change between two styles to match a scene when you’re traveling.

    INTERVIEW: Throughout your history, you’ve repeatedly seized on iconic Western brands and rethought and reconstructed them. How do you choose the brands that you want to work with? Levi’s and Brooks Brothers are two American staples, but they couldn’t be more different.

    JW: It depends on what I’m feeling at the time. The brands are often starting points. I love workwear and the American tradition. I just love Levi’s and Brooks Brothers, so I used them.

    INTERVIEW: Why do you think Japanese designers are so interested in the West?

    JW: Western clothes are our everyday wardrobe. But I don’t think that it makes
    much of a difference anymore whether you’re Japanese or American or European.

    INTERVIEW: The song you played during the show was Ringo Starr singing “Sentimental Journey.” Do you travel a lot?

    JW: No, personally I don’t travel that much. I usually just have short business trips.

    ALL CLOTHING, HAT, AND SHOES
    : JUNYA WATANABE. SOCKS: APC. LUGGAGE: VINTAGE GLOBE-TROTTER. BELT: STYLIST’S OWN. WATCH: OMEGA. HAIR PRODUCTS: URBAN EXPERIMENT. GROOMING: DENNIS GOTS/COMMUNITY.NYC. MODEL: WILL LEWIS/RED.
    all taken from Interview magazine
  • Johnny
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2006
    • 1923

    #2
    Thanks ahlefeldt although it's not hugely interesting! His answer to question 2 is quite funny though.

    Edit: Faust you need to try to get an audience with Junya to elicit something more substantial out of him.

    Comment

    • Avantster
      ¤¤¤
      • Sep 2006
      • 1983

      #3
      Thanks ahlefeldt. It would be interesting to read a more in-depth interview with Watanabe.
      let us raise a toast to ancient cotton, rotten voile, gloomy silk, slick carf, decayed goat, inflamed ram, sooty nelton, stifling silk, lazy sheep, bone-dry broad & skinny baffalo.

      Comment

      • delirium
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2008
        • 164

        #4
        I thought it was pretty interesting to read despite being straight forward. Thanks for posting.

        Comment

        • Faust
          kitsch killer
          • Sep 2006
          • 37852

          #5
          Originally posted by Johnny View Post
          Thanks ahlefeldt although it's not hugely interesting! His answer to question 2 is quite funny though.

          Edit: Faust you need to try to get an audience with Junya to elicit something more substantial out of him.
          Word. But they are notoriously elusive. I have another man from the la d of the rising sin in my ninja sights
          Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

          StyleZeitgeist Magazine

          Comment

          • Avantster
            ¤¤¤
            • Sep 2006
            • 1983

            #6
            Gulp. Are you thinking of who I'm thinking?
            let us raise a toast to ancient cotton, rotten voile, gloomy silk, slick carf, decayed goat, inflamed ram, sooty nelton, stifling silk, lazy sheep, bone-dry broad & skinny baffalo.

            Comment

            • Real Real
              Senior Member
              • Feb 2007
              • 619

              #7
              I would have liked the reversible blazer-windbreakers more if they had crafted the blazer differently.

              Right now, if the windbreaker part is facing outwards, you can see a reversed blazer (with the internal lining exposed) peeking out from beneath the jacket. I think it would have looked better had they finished the blazer on both sides - so, if you were wearing the windbreaker on the outside, it would look like you were wearing a normal blazer (not a reversed blazer) underneath. It would have made the whole thing more useful and less gimmicky.

              Comment

              • Faust
                kitsch killer
                • Sep 2006
                • 37852

                #8
                Originally posted by Avantster View Post
                Gulp. Are you thinking of who I'm thinking?
                Haha, not quite. He's on the list, of course.
                Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                Comment

                • howinpark
                  Senior Member
                  • Jan 2009
                  • 97

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Real Real View Post
                  I would have liked the reversible blazer-windbreakers more if they had crafted the blazer differently.

                  Right now, if the windbreaker part is facing outwards, you can see a reversed blazer (with the internal lining exposed) peeking out from beneath the jacket. I think it would have looked better had they finished the blazer on both sides - so, if you were wearing the windbreaker on the outside, it would look like you were wearing a normal blazer (not a reversed blazer) underneath. It would have made the whole thing more useful and less gimmicky.

                  I agree with it...
                  I mean I understand he would have been intending to give the underneath look.. but not that pretty.
                  But it is an awesome try and I actually want to have one in ma closet.

                  Comment

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