The three-day weekend celebrating the spring equinox brought crowds to Kyoto and Osaka, where plum trees showed the first signs of pink blossoms and streets bustled with shoppers.Last week, the stress of what some are calling 3/11, along with the uncertainty of blackouts and earthquakes, made it difficult to focus and work in Tokyo. Many, [...]

Smart, functional design has always been at the heart of Jun Takahashi’s Undercover label. He’s a guy who looks up to industrial designers as much as fashion ones—he wears a leather watch emblazoned with Dieter Rams’ mantra “Less but better,” after all—and has long experimented with technical materials and function-first dressing. (He once shot a [...]

Some men have inner demons; Undercover’s Jun Takahashi has his Graces. The lamblike stuffed dolls the Japanese designer invented a few seasons ago have stayed with him ever since, popping up in Undercover’s fashion shows (they sometimes perch on the shoulder of a dress), their own gallery exhibitions, and, soon, at the Diane Pernet-curated SCOPE [...]

The one fault New York gallery types might have with this week’s art offerings is the sheer abundance of them. Should one put off the Biennial to better take in the Armory Show? Dodge the crowds and check out Volta or Pulse? Heed your accountant’s warnings and skip the weekend entirely? Last night at Quality [...]

If he stayed true to his usual routine, Undercover designer Jun Takahashi kept out of the way of any flashbulbs at his label’s presentation today in Paris, which is what makes the Shepherd, an art-slash-history book we’ve been admiring for the past few days, so special. A visual documentary of behind-the-scenes footage of Takahashi and [...]

Wearing fringe to the Country Music Awards? That might not sound wildly original, but Nicole Kidman turned the cliché on its head when she showed up in this Jil Sander stunner last week. Ironic or not, the embellishment was easy to find on the Spring runways (click for slideshow). Undercover’s Jun Takahashi used it in [...]

Grace, an eerie if somewhat comical character created by designer Jun Takahashi, has been making her presence felt for the last several seasons at his Undercover shows. At yesterday’s exhibit-styled presentation, however, she upped her ante: A whole army of Graces, in the form of diamanté and pearl-encrusted figurines, were sitting pretty on the mannequins. [...]

Monday September 29
6:30 a.m.
I wake up at 6 a.m., then go to the Ritz Health Club. I go for a swim and then to the hamman (steam sauna). I love the Hotel Ritz. I always stay in the same room, which makes me feel at home. And I love the swimming pool. The floor of [...]