Junya Watanabe

PARIS, October 4, 2005
By Sarah Mower
Fed up with pretty, polite, ladylike retro? The young Japanese are. Junya Watanabe, like his compatriot Jun Takahashi of Undercover, is trying to beat a path forward by reverting to rock as a source of ideas. Heads bristling with massive spiked paper Mohawks, faces masked in cling film, his imaginary gang of psycho-punks stomped out in skinny cropped bondage pants, heavy skinhead boots, and skewed, cutaway, pulled-back versions of trenchcoats.

Watanabe said he'd been inspired by a Japanese band that delights in the name Mad Capture Maggots. The results involved a lot of patching together of chopped-up tour T-shirts, ripped crochet leggings, distressed leather, and camouflage prints. Still, whatever's rocking Watanabe's world at the moment, he'll never make a totally convincing convert to street toughness. For all the full-on energy of this show, it somehow couldn't help but echo his sweet, career-long romance with traily long dresses and Edwardian frock coats—even if, this season, they're pretending to slam doors and sulk.

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