Doublet (Q2955)
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Doublet is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Doublet |
Doublet is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Masayuki Ino’s talent lies in how he’s able to plumb the depths of popular culture in Japan to reinterpret it in a way that is reliably entertaining, even if it may not always easily translate. For this season, the designer chose the Japanese concept ofoshi, the idea of rooting for an idol or celebrity. Fan culture—from Taylor Swift’s Swifties to BTS’s Army—is a defining phenomenon of our age, but nowhere does it quite like Japan.Takeitabags (literally “painful” or “cringe” bags), which are covered in rows of badges or festooned with key rings depicting anime characters or pop idols beloved by the wearer. See alsoitasha(cringe-mobiles covered in fan-merchandise stickers). For Doublet’s spring collection, Ino put his own twist onitabags, creatingitabiker jackets with rows of anime badges in a window of clear vinyl on the back. The show took place outside in a makeshift concert setting in front of a standing-only crowd, with guests given homemadeuchiwa(fans that are often waved at shows) decorated with messages in Japanese like “Blow a kiss!” and “Point at me!” and “We love Doublet!”Elsewhere, gold- and silver-tinseled cheerleading pom-poms appeared as sleeves or as clutches. Colorful anime characters created by AI were printed onto T-shirts and jeans; goggles came with two giant love hearts over the eyes; andYour Only Fanswas emblazoned in pink across a cropped varsity jersey. It was Doublet at its cheeky best, but behind the jokes were some beautifully cut trousers and jackets, as well as thoughtful fabric work. As Ino explained postshow, he has been working more and more each season with innovative fabrics such as Spiber, a material grown from protein, as well as bio-PVC made from apple seeds and skins.Overall, this collection was the designer’s way of saying thank you to his team of supporters and the people who have helped him along his journey—from being the first Japanese designer to win the LVMH Prize in 2018 to his current position as fashion’s premier funnyman. Backstage after the presentation, die-hard Doublet devotees from across the industry swarmed to congratulate the designer, as well as a few others who saw his show for the first time. The expansion of the Doublet fan base continues apace.
23 June 2024
Ordinarily, a Doublet show is something of a funfair. But although Cabaret was the theme of the Fall show, Masayuki Ino said he wasn’t feeling quite as much into fun and games as usual. The world, he said backstage before the show, has made him too heartsick for that.Instead, the designer offered up something of a Frankenstein-meets-Demagorgon collection, swapping out straight-up silliness for wellness-inspired clothes, for example hand-painted shirts that incorporate real therapeutic magnets to enhance circulation (in a sly move, those shirts come embroidered with a single golden arch), or leather coats with studs reprising the acupuncture points that balance energy flow in classic Chinese medicine.Elsewhere, a “Heal tech” sweatshirt with a neon green heart slyly riffed on a well-known trademark while also making a case for enhanced sustainability, and a “Nap” sweatshirt extolled the power of catching shuteye. Amid the pop-culture references and in-jokes, the designer made a case for sustainability too. Trenches pieced together from leftover fabric, with an assist from 3D modeling, had helped reduce waste to less than 5% the designer said. Those and a few other pieces—a white coat with red lining, a double-breasted beige jacket, a leather bomber, a couple of destroyed knits—will likely be a welcome form of therapy for his base.
22 January 2024
“Recently, I hear lots of gossip about me. Why is that? You think am I taking your work away?”Placed on each seat at Doublet today was a personal letter. One could sense a little hurt, some disappointment, an overarching feeling of rejection from the author. Such would be the case if the writer in question could feel any emotion… Unless it can?Welcome to the age of artificial intelligence. Some love it, some hate it, some are hopeful, and others terrified. Not one to shy away from an opportunity to provide cultural commentary, Doublet’s Masayuki Ino is intrigued. His shows have touched on everything from deepfakes to global warming, and they never lack humorous and thoughtful interpretations of the many human-made developments that have the humans in question interrogating our very own existence. Today’s show was no different.That some models had USB ports placed on their calves or abdomen and others scooted down the runway on hoverboards was an indication of what Ino had been thinking about. There was also a hoodie with a CD slot, a lab coat for a “Social Relativity Scholar,” and even an “I [heart] 3D” tee. Ino’s intention was to give AI a human shape, which, while not always clear, was certainly entertaining.That’s the charm of Doublet, after all. The collections pose questions you don’t always need the answers to in order to enjoy what they have to offer. Had you not known of the AI of it all, you would have still done a double-take on the super drop crotch jeans in look 4, or the glistening silver and pink foiled denim pieces. Also fun: An askew T-shirt and cardigan hybrid and a pair of leather jeans hanging off a golden chain like a shoulder bag—that’s the thing about AI, things are always just a little bit messed up. Ino was clever to capture this element in his collection, too.“AI has no limit. It can study, it can learn, it can do anything. Human beings have limits, but AI does not,” Ino said backstage. Will there ever be an AI-designed Doublet collection? Not quite, but never say never. “While I worked on this collection I used AI to get feedback and find inspiration,” Ino said. Call it a collaboration.
25 June 2023
For anyone casting an eye over the Doublet collection and wondering if they spotted Chewbacca in a leather jacket—you are right. And if you thought those balloons were a tribute to Banksy, you’re right on that too (no, the designer doesn’t know Banksy, but he’s a big fan).Staged in an outdoor courtyard at the Faculty of Pharmacy on a bitterly cold Sunday morning, the show opened with an amusement park-style performance of dancing characters. Some were emoji-like, others were a tad more out-there. As in: Star Wars Cantina out-there.For Masayuki Ino, winner of the 2018 LVMH Young Fashion Designers Prize, melding the human and animal worlds offered a platform for speaking about diversity.“When you watch Star Wars, vastly different creatures from across the galaxy are friends,” he said through an interpreter. “When you look at the jungle ecosystem, all the animals live in harmony. It’s only human beings who keep to themselves, and mess things up.”The amusement park setting, of course, is just the get-up. Yes, there are fishtail skirts with actual fishtails and, true to form, silly sweaters with openwork eye holes that can, at a push, be worn over the head. But with a little patience and parsing, one can discern some finely tailored shirts, covetable sweats and tees (all from recycled cotton, the designer noted) and tops that are one-size-fits-all inclusive.There were also some very pretty velvet dresses showered with pearls, interesting knitwear techniques that recalled sargassum, wispy handknits, tailored overcoats, and a one-shouldered tee with an ”I (heart) D” graphic. Whether that’s D for Doublet or diversity, it was winning.
23 January 2023
Masayuki Ino has a unique touch for capturing the zeitgeist at his thoroughly entertaining shows. The combination of set, casting, and clothes allows for fluid conversation, reference spotting, and, above all, endless questions.Ino staged his spring 2023 menswear show in a courtyard in Paris, where he recreated a summer picnic under a blizzard. He placed models in classic summer situations, two sunbathing, one grilling, another working out, and there was also a doppelganger ofStranger Things’ Eleven mid-telekinesis. All of them froze the moment the first look walked out, and, by the time the snowfall started around look 10, the venue looked like a snowglobe. “I aimed to express the strangeness in our daily life,” he said via email, adding that the purpose of the stop motion was to create an unusual but almost “miraculous” situation, as was the point of making it snow in the middle of the Parisian summer. Frankly speaking, our world these days is very unusual. All of those jokes about how we’re living in a simulation are starting to feel eerily realistic.Doublet’s clothes are often as entertaining as the sets, and this time was no exception. The through line, at least in the first half of the show, seemed to be a meaty barbecue theme. Tofleshit out (sorry, I had to), it’s best to look at the variety of skin-like treatments in the collection.The show opened with a spiky knit bodycon dress reminiscent of a dress form (a nod to Margiela spring 1997, one would assume); then came a fleshy pink crochet dress with a variety of skin-toned swatches (almost reminiscent to a makeup palette), a pink suit with gloves included and a finger belt buckle and waist chain with fingers as links. Later, Ino added a t-shirt with a trompe l’oeil torso meat tin can, a tinfoil colored moto jacket with burnt edges, and ripped jeans with a shiny pink lining to mimic the model’s legs. All of this had a point. Ino says that one of his key materials this season is a nylon and recycled poly mixed fabric with a trompe l’oeil cloth print. “I wanted to express the smooth texture of the T1000 ofTerminator2,” he said, “so it’s like CGI clothes walking in the real world.” Trippy.
29 June 2022
Masayuki Ino has a few thoughts on diversity and the metaverse.During a Zoom conversation, the designer spoke of the work he has done for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, reflections that pushed him to create his own reality fronted by the pink-haired virtual character “Imma,” worn as a face mask by an eclectic lineup of models.The video for a collection entitled This is Me uses a Shibuya turnstile and “scramble crossing”—actually a set—as a portal into Ino’s rose-colored world where clothes speak to longevity of wear and lead a gender-, ability-, and size-neutral existence.To that last point, applying the Arimatsu shibori technique to super-stretch denim—seen here in look 12 and on the photo-printed cargo pants in look 21—lets the fabric suit any morphology from small to XL. A favorite vintage jacket informs a leather one with adjusted shoulder pads that let it stay put when worn as seen here on look 17.The designer also delved deeper into alternative fabrics, scouring the country in search of new ideas. Ironic though they appear, underwear and socks emblazoned with “Made for Disposal” are playing it straight: they’re made from a textile developed using 100% PLA (polylactic acid), a biodegradable derivative of sugarcane starch (just wash them on cold). A blouson and trousers not shown here were made using the same fabric.Elsewhere, a cream-colored shearling-style jacket was made of recycled cashmere and mushroom leather, a material also used for patch embellishments on the chains of real-leather bags, a collaboration with the Japanese accessories brand Robert Judson.Other statement-making outerwear included a dye-free, glossy khaki bomber and parka made from basalt-derived fabric that retains the original igneous rock’s characteristic lightness, warmth, and water-resistance.Fur, too, went meta: reclaimed collars from forgotten storage became a limited-edition coat; fully embroidered skirts in wool were brushed to look like fur; and real fur shavings were upcycled with wool and nylon into a “real-faux” fabric. Mind-bending? Yes. But innovation is Ino’s priority—and if it’s good for the environment too, that’s a win all around.Ultimately, however, the metaverse is a way of comparing things with the physical world: nothing artificial can equal the poetic fluttering of hand-crocheted butterflies, or the charm of a belt made of souvenir keychains that were otherwise destined for landfill.
“My job is to create more happiness in the real world,” the designer offered. With this collection, he’s done just that.
23 January 2022
According to Masayuki Ino, the pandemic has wrapped the world in a big blanket of sameness. Everyone is following similar rules of behavior; politics and social media are pushing us to conform to normative lifestyles. Under the circumstances, it’s obvious that we all share hope for a brighter future, and we’re all looking in the same direction. It’s a sort of necessary disposition. But Ino doesn’t buy into it.“I feel uncomfortable walking along roads that are being established by society,” he said through an interpreter from his studio in Tokyo, ahead of his Doublet live fashion show. “Being too well-behaved and serious isn’t my thing.” Ino is equally annoyed by a certain reverential attitude towards sustainability: “People say, ‘Oh, it’s so cool, these clothes are environmentally friendly.’ Of course, it’s very important to be sustainable. But fashion isn’t great just because it’s sustainable.”Ino thinks that fashion has to keep us excited and happy and trigger conversations and dreams. Fashion has to make people smile—while, of course, being sustainable. So what’s the solution? “Rebellious punk fashion with environmentally friendly materials is here!” he said. “Let’s make bad-behavior clothes in a good, responsible way.”A lo-fi punk DIY attitude has been flagged by quite a few designers this season; it has to do with a feeling of creative rebellion pent up during the pandemic, which is now given free rein through highly individual, homemade, defiant, imaginative disorder. There’s always beauty in chaos. Ino’s take on punk isn’t as abrasive and provocative as it is humorous in a childish, almost in a tender way. Sustainability in his hands seems to become playful and a bit bonkers, even if extensive research on cutting-edge innovative technology is actually involved.The results of Ino’s approach to punk sustainability are whimsical—and really make you smile. Or at least that’s what I did when I was shown the collection through the screen. In a true Japanese obsessive-pursuit-of-perfection mindset, he went quite radical in his lo-fi organic approach to dyes, yarns, and various ingenious responsible techniques. Examples include an organic canvas oversized denim trucker jacket dyed with the liquid extracted from food waste. “It’s a gutter-like color, isn’t it?” he proudly underlined.
Threads made from discarded banana leaves were woven into a knitted sweat, curved into a banana shape; further adding a realistic flip, the black stains of a rotten banana were reproduced through jacquard techniques. A roomy jumper made from yarns extracted from milk proteins was dyed with coffee: “It has become like a caffe latte!” said Ino. On the same note, fungi-generated leather was rendered into a black, hard-punk rider jacket with a poisonous Amanita phalloides hand-painted on its back. A dye from macerated onion exodermis was used to dye a nylon bomber jacket; vintage denims were pasted together and hard pressed, then thinly sliced into a new denim fabric that replicates the wood rings of tree trunks.The list could go on. Last but not least, a Japanese embroidery technique so incredibly realistic it can reproduce the minutiae of photographic images was applied to a denim Perfecto-style jacket whose pockets, zippers, studs, and buttons were actual trompe l’oeil. Even the ripped effects were illusions. “Metallic hardware, plastic parts, and denim dyes are pollutants,” said Ino. “This is damaged, undamaged, and un-damaging denim. It’s kind to the environment.”
27 June 2021
As 2020 wore on—and on—Masayuki Ino got to thinking about time machines. Part of it came from watching old movies, he said, but his overarching theme this season is about rebirth. “Going out and walking around is my usual source of inspiration,” the designer explained through his interpreter on a Zoom call from Tokyo. Since that wasn’t an option, he looked inward, tapping memory as its own form of time travel.“In Japanese, we speak of mottainai—a spirit that means don’t waste. It’s kind of nostalgic,” he said, adding that his goal was to create clothes that could be worn at any age, to convey “the importance of dressing carefully rather than throwing things away.”Inherently that meant turning to sustainable sources. One example is Suffolk wool, a material manufacturers usually discard for imperfections, like flecks of straw. A coat in that material showed a farmer embroidered on the back to illustrate rebirth. Elsewhere, a cherry red coat was made of PET fur upcycled from plastic bottles and fastened with bottle-shaped toggle buttons, and a green cable knit, also in Suffolk wool, was something else entirely before Ino got his hands on it—the back featured a ‘recycle’ symbol with trailing threads. Regressing even further, Ino made rompers for grown-ups, in one case as a Zoom-appropriate kelly green tailored jacket, offering those so inclined a new spin on comfort dressing. A panda-hood parka, too, recalled childhood coats.Getting the world to the point of rebirth is proving longer and more circuitous than anyone could have imagined. Ino, as his base well knows, figures that whatever the journey, you might as well have as much fun as possible getting there.
26 January 2021
Masayuki Ino learned a new life skill during confinement: For the first time ever, he baked his wife a birthday cake. “Usually, we go out,” he explained during a Zoom interview. “She was so happy.” One good thing about lockdown, he said, was being able to boost her spirits.While drumming up creative things to do, he also made many of his followers happy by posting instructions for DIY masks online, and he also produced some with a tiger’s muzzle, or trompe l’oeil human faces either smiling or mugging as if for a selfie.From there, he decided to create a collection dedicated to celebrating un-birthdays. His video, entitled “Strangest Comfort” stars a bear who loves birthdays, Valentines, and weddings, who runs around making people happy.“Giving presents to someone is very important, but caring for someone and seeing their smile is what gives me even greater pleasure,” said the designer. “It’s about being heart-to-heart.”For spring, one example comes wrapped like a gift box: Unwrapped, it becomes a jacket, and its ribbon a belt. A pouch printed with teddy bears and gifts unfolds into silky-looking pajamas. Even socks wax poetic when balled up like a single stem rose; unrolled, they display various messages like “kindness” and “joy.”Elsewhere, Ino used hand crochet to come up with a bear top with “paw” sleeves that could fold up or serve as mittens. Pants, too, had paws that could fold up to be revealed, or worn down and concealed. A matching hat could be pulled down into a full-head mask. A customizable T-shirt came with 44 capital letters to stick inside a velcro frame in front and spell out a mood. Underneath, the caption reads “Do you know what day this is?”Ino tries to live in the moment, and to that end he came up with a cool denim jacket that channels a perennial vintage favorite while capturing our own times. Plain in front, its back features a sewn-in collage of Polaroid snaps. In daylight, they appear shiny, black and undeveloped. Point a phone and flash a picture, and images emerge, such as a teddy bear. The technology, called “Rainbow Film,” came courtesy of the Japanese supplier Label Film; Ino also used it on a coat and hoodies. Doublet’s base will delight in those, as well as the bear-in-the-pocket T-shirt shown here.Ino has a few other things up his sleeves too, like a “small collaboration with a big name,” to be announced soon. Until then, he’s betting on a smile to muddle through bleak times.
29 July 2020
In Paris yesterday, Doublet designer Masayuki Ino offered up a smorgasboard that seemed to crib, unknowingly, from Auntie Mame, who famously said, “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.” It was the show of the week in terms of diversity—size, color, shape, age, religion…and cuisine.Inside a gallery in the third arrondissement, the designer staged a “We Are the World” manifesto, set in a typical Japanese-style cafeteria. Models settled at their tables in fun, fanciful getups, their trays laden with food sculptures in molded plastic—the kind one sees in Japanese restaurant windows all over the place, except this time the fries were recast as a Ferris wheel, Wagyu beef came as a handbag stuffed with vegetables, and pastries were a carousel. The outfits were likewise, a joyful mash-up.What with scoring the LVMH Grand Prize two years ago, Ino’s been traveling all over the world, so it’s perhaps not surprising that the idea of a cafeteria came circling back. “This is like a typical Japanese family restaurant where we always went as kids; you can eat whatever kind of foods you like,” he commented. It may be a metaphor for fashion today, but the designer said he’s never met food as delicious as his childhood memories.
17 January 2020
“It was my first show, and I didn’t know anything about making a fashion show. I just put everything I had into it and wanted to have fun,” said Doublet founder and designer Masayuki Ino, which is perhaps why his presentation felt like a party. The models’ faces were oiled to look as if they’d just come out of a particularly sweaty rave, and blue and green club lights flashed over the runway.The clothes themselves were rave-ready, too: One faded graphic tee featured Marilyn Manson’s huge yellowy visage on the front andSex is deadembossed on the back. The overarching message was tongue-in-cheek meta anti-fashion. The wordknitwas knitted onto a sweater in a Vetements font; XXL appeared very large on an oversize pullover; andUnderwearshowed up on the waistbands of, yeah, underwear. Major fashion cities were referenced in highbrow-to-lowbrow manner:ParisreplacedPepsion the beverage’s blue and red logo, for example. Garters suspended pants that were cut off above the thigh; a messy alphabet of Doublet varsity letters were patched onto a burgundy calf-length coat; and humongous suit trousers were pulled up to the midriff of a cropped sports T-shirt. The Japanesesukajan(souvenir jacket) influence was clear, too, with traditional tiger and eagle iconography warped into abstract embroidery that was emblazoned onto the arms of a leather jacket or up the legs of mauve velour track pants.What stood out the most was the mixture of professional and nonprofessional models who walked the runway. Demi Demu, the up-and-comer Tokyo stylist who is a core part of the Doublet family, worked closely with the models to create individual looks that did a good job of capturing the character of those wearing the clothes. “It is all about individual character. I don’t care about it being cool,” said Ino. Despite that sentiment—or perhaps because of it—Doublet has cool in bucketfuls.
27 March 2017