Ssstein’s Kiichiro Asakawa is Japan’s excessive wizard of quiet luxurious, and over the previous few years he’s remodeled his model right into a refined pressure to be reckoned with. Having began in 2016 with simply three pairs of trousers, ssstein (with three s’s as of final season) now presents a smorgasbord of wonderful wardrobe staples which can be beloved by consumers from Seoul to Switzerland. Most talked-about are its beautiful coats, comprised of wealthy, shiny wools that ripple with consummate stylish.
This season marked one thing of a step-up for the model, and it confirmed in Paris for the primary time, to a modest standing viewers on the Palais de Tokyo. The recipient of this 12 months’s Trend Prize of Tokyo—which exists to assist Japanese designers increase their worldwide attain—Asakawa will present his collections for ssstein in Paris each this season and subsequent. In addition to the clout it will carry, it additionally means an awesome alternative for Asakawa to flex his inventive muscle tissue in a brand new setting.
This was, as standard, a group of lovely garments—his trademark trench coats have been there, as have been loads of different brilliantly wearable items (from super-clean shirts to deliberately dirtied denim and cargo pants)—however the reliance on the same old suspects made it laborious to shake the sensation that ssstein had performed it secure.
“This season began with me my favourite picture books and excited about the gap between the photographer and the fashions,” Asakawa defined after the present. “I wished to precise the pure but gentle, very cautious and heat, stunning aspect of that [interaction].” Although the designer was speaking within the summary, the perfect bits of the gathering have been certainly the elements that had one thing of the nice and cozy, pure and gentle to them: the contrasting wools that have been typically fuzzy and typically easy, the layered lapels, and the unusually interesting pipe-belts. Much less profitable was a stiff-looking leather-based corset belt, and blazers with overly outsized shoulders that, when mixed with a excessive turtleneck, dwarfed the top.
These small nitpicks apart, Asakawa’s knack for making high quality, sellable product is simple. “I wished to make garments you’ll be able to casually put on in your doorstep however that someway really feel very elegant,” he defined. Doorstep class—it has a pleasant ring to it.
