Kolor (Q4606)
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organization
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Kolor |
organization |
Statements
“We are not a brand that tends to over-explain ourselves, so write about what you feel,” said a representative of Kolor’s Junichi Abe backstage. When asked to offer a word to describe his own feelings, and his collection, the designer offered succinctly: “Uniform.”There was a hilarious irony in the drizzle that started as guests sat around the courtyard of the Lycée Henri-IV, making the majority of the crowd throw on the plastic rain ponchos Abe’s team had left on each seat, effectively uniforming itself. But Abe’s curiosity for uniforms was less driven by homogeneity and more by mere keenness for their aesthetic. “There is no other meaning,” he said with a smile of his appetite for exploring this particular territory this season.Abe riffed on varsity styles and army jackets, creating handsome reimaginings of British military tunics cut extra wide and with high breaks to offer a playful flatness. He also looked at tactical vests; most charming here were those he made in mesh to layer above below tees and outerwear with their cargo pockets hanging sometimes over and others under, creating a charming sense of depth.Uniforms provided a common thread to this Kolor lineup, and a solid foundation for Abe to then let his knack for deeply technical reconstructions run freely. He cut boyish creased tailored trousers and layered them under sheer nylon slacks, and collaged some of his blazers with shiny lightweight Lurex sweaters on their backs. This experiment in aerodynamics continued with light nylon skirts that ballooned in the wind and cutesy tulle T-shirts ruffled and gathered here and there for a left-field touch of evening drama.Today’s winners were by far the crinkly nylon coats and jackets, one styled as a shirt in the opening look and others belted or offered as finishing touches in multi-layered outfits. An overarching story this season has been that of light and airy tailoring, jackets gutted and made forcibly light and breezy. Abe was not immune to this rising trend in menswear, but his iteration was still, as things go down in Kolor land, entirely his own: There was some cheeky humor to the way he added panels of gray nylon basted with diagonal stitches to his lapels, replicating traditional tailoring inner workings.
In the same way the guests looked after the show with their rain ponchos worn only around their necks or hanging over an arm or two—the sun started beaming as soon as the first look hit the runway—Abe’s uniforms had nothing monotonous about them. They carried a lived-in sense of individuality.
24 June 2024
Backstage, Kolor’s Junichi Abe was trying to explain what happens when reworking standard garments creates a sense of uncertainty and was apologetic that his words might not be measuring up to the intention of the collection. Of course, parsing clothes can sometimes do a disservice to them. And in this case, the workmanship spoke of the season’s intention as much as any description.We were back at the Pierre and Marie Curie University campus (scorching heat last June; finger numbing today) and the models arrived via a multi-story escalator with groovy, synthesized music giving the impression that they were descending almost robot-like despite their revisited denim and outerwear. The ‘uncanny valley’ is more an aesthetic than a place, yet it felt like this was our destination.There, the equilibrium of construction in perfected garments such as a duffel coat or classic shirt was destabilized so that the collar of the former was missing or the collar of the latter had been offset. Nothing too dramatic, mind you. Just enough to wonder if this ultimately enhanced the identity of the wearer or felt unnecessary. But the ongoing exploration of Kolor goes beyond just the deconstruction and reconstruction, to the normalizing of it.So amidst the workwear jackets spliced with quilted layers; pea coats with tuxedo lapels; varsity jackets with their striped ribbing displaced to the back yoke; waistbands removed and suspended an inch higher; and women’s slingbacks with fleece toe caps, the looks exuded more character than in their typical states. Even more so because there were also random lashings of jewels and gold embroidery.Abe was wearing the original prototype for the painted chinos that appeared in the show. He said his were from a Kolor collection nearly 20 years ago and gave the studio permission to experiment. Evidently, the effect appealed to them enough to extend the paint marks to sailor smocks and boat shoes. The iterative and artistic development that went into this season’s pieces will surely be noticed by those who are not only seduced by the final product but the process itself. Whether deliberately or a glitch in translation, the press text referred to the mainstay garments as “products known as ‘masterpieces.’” Asked whether he considers himself an artist—especially given all those notions of reconfiguration and collage—Abe replied, “I am a designer, a production designer, a clothes designer.
” He is also a designer in constant pursuit of challenging what we take for granted, no further explanation necessary.
20 January 2024
The thought of donning skiwear while temperatures on this summery Saturday in Paris hovered in the low 80s might seem like an unpleasant exercise in wardrobe dissonance. Absurd, even. But Kolor’s Junichi Abe, who learned to ski as a child and recently returned to the slopes, was intrigued by the challenge of recontextualizing the high-octane sport. So as the sun shone down on a courtyard within the Pierre and Marie Curie University campus, the collection slalomed through a variety of references without the heaviness of winter apparel.Runway music can speak volumes, and the thumping electronic soundtrack suggested that this lineup was not as vaguely nostalgic as the color scheme and old-school outdoorsy layers might have suggested. Abe is often era-ambiguous this way, and brought us to a kind of retro-future rave world where Gen Z and people of the designer’s own generation would find common ground.As every look had its own precise originality, the most compelling outfits were those that showed off his clever constructions. You can almost see how the sleeveless blazer in look 37 had a billowing windbreaker back, while what appeared to be a more classic design in look 43 revealed a dense arrangement of sport paneling and ski cords as the model walked past. Outerwear was totally reimagined—longer and lighter, sometimes attached to the waist as a half-skirt. The alpine snowflake sweaters and mittens appeared as cape sleeves or else as fun tops with glistening letters that spelled outpowder(interpret as you will). Safety orange tulle created a strange lightness—at once softly feminine while also evoking a screen or filter.“It looks normal but then something happens,” said Abe after the show. “It looks not weird, it combines naturally.” Asked whether he considered how the collection would make us feel, he demurred. Perhaps there are no straightforward impressions amidst these elaborate compositions (even the sandals were made up of multiple straps, each boasting a sport slogan). Most salient was a sense of awe similar to the experience of seeing collages by Picasso and Braque, who sought to shake up surfaces, add dimension, and enhance visual interest. “Well, I’m not Picasso,” Abe said with a laugh. Still, he’s doing something unmatched by anyone else.
24 June 2023
There’s something adjacent tokintsukuroi, the Japanese craft of rebuilding shattered ceramics with each composite part outlined in putty, in the work of Juniche Abe at Kolor. It is also akin to a jigsaw puzzle—although neither comparison fully captures his process. That’s because in both kintsukuroi and jigsaws, the eventual aim is to reassemble every split fragment into the position that restores the original. Abe’s restorations are much more radical, because they impose new elements into the ‘original’ pieces.In order to create his ordered chaos, Abe works with great deliberation—and no rush. “It’s a continuation of the last season,” he said backstage: “I want to build a strong image and I want to find things. I don’t know about next season but for now, I am looking for the same things.”One thing that Abe unearthed in this show was the unusual power to make the normal seem abnormal, emphasizing the dullness of the usual. Close to the end, a male-worn look came out consisting of green, stud-brogued sneakers, some flowing black pants, and a rib hemmed red stadium jacket. Sure, the look lacked the conventional symmetry of a worn facade: collar and cuff were both mismatched, a dimpled break on the jacket’s shoulder pulled the right hem higher than the left, and then there was the sweater’s skewed v-neckline. However it was so close to “right” that—coming after all we had seen before that had normalized much more radical “wrongness” on the eye—it appeared odd.The previous 47 looks, presented in the retro-futuristic Kubrick oddness of Oscar Niemeyer’s semi-subterranean dome at the French Communist Party Headquarters (always an ironic landlord at Paris Fashion Week), had brainwashed our expectations. What at first seemed disordered eventually acquired a strange logic as multiple top-halves (outerwear and jackets) were presented with pieces apparently from the pants worn below imposed on their hems. Suit jackets were presented with the canvas guts of their internal workings promoted in parts to the exterior, like worn Pompidou buildings. These were often presented with double cuffs or rolled-up sleeves with integrated forearm-covering second-sleeves below, a tic that was evident across several shows this season but which is a regular in Kolor’s design palette. As an inside-out and upside-down exercise in breaking norms of dress in order to rebuild its fragments and create unorthodox harmony, it was rewarding to watch.
23 January 2023
There’s something adjacent tokintsukuroi, the Japanese craft of rebuilding shattered ceramics with each composite part outlined in putty, in the work of Juniche Abe at Kolor. It is also akin to a jigsaw puzzle—although neither comparison fully captures his process. That’s because in both kintsukuroi and jigsaws, the eventual aim is to reassemble every split fragment into the position that restores the original. Abe’s restorations are much more radical, because they impose new elements into the ‘original’ pieces.In order to create his ordered chaos, Abe works with great deliberation—and no rush. “It’s a continuation of the last season,” he said backstage: “I want to build a strong image and I want to find things. I don’t know about next season but for now, I am looking for the same things.”One thing that Abe unearthed in this show was the unusual power to make the normal seem abnormal, emphasizing the dullness of the usual. Close to the end, a male-worn look came out consisting of green, stud-brogued sneakers, some flowing black pants, and a rib hemmed red stadium jacket. Sure, the look lacked the conventional symmetry of a worn facade: collar and cuff were both mismatched, a dimpled break on the jacket’s shoulder pulled the right hem higher than the left, and then there was the sweater’s skewed v-neckline. However it was so close to “right” that—coming after all we had seen before that had normalized much more radical “wrongness” on the eye—it appeared odd.The previous 47 looks, presented in the retro-futuristic Kubrick oddness of Oscar Niemeyer’s semi-subterranean dome at the French Communist Party Headquarters (always an ironic landlord at Paris Fashion Week), had brainwashed our expectations. What at first seemed disordered eventually acquired a strange logic as multiple top-halves (outerwear and jackets) were presented with pieces apparently from the pants worn below imposed on their hems. Suit jackets were presented with the canvas guts of their internal workings promoted in parts to the exterior, like worn Pompidou buildings. These were often presented with double cuffs or rolled-up sleeves with integrated forearm-covering second-sleeves below, a tic that was evident across several shows this season but which is a regular in Kolor’s design palette. As an inside-out and upside-down exercise in breaking norms of dress in order to rebuild its fragments and create unorthodox harmony, it was rewarding to watch.
23 January 2023
Juniche Abe makes clothing that snags the fabric of your assumptions as to what clothes “should” look like, in a fascinating way. After several pre-pandemic years of showroom appointments with Kolor, he returned to Paris Fashion Week to present a live show that was wonderful to watch.Abe said backstage that he aimed for an approximate golden ratio of around 75% “simple” clothes to 25 “complicated.” But in truth, it was more complicated than that. From the inverted tongue trainers (great) to the series of pieces that seemed to have skewed their wearers like a half-blended smoothie, with overlapping lapel, collar, hem, and pocket twisted around the central fulcrum of the human within, almost every garment seemed to have a trick up its sleeve(s).Subtle details that broke the conventional harmony of clothing arrested your attention; the hanging mesh hem on only the left leg of a sports-short, or the cutaway panel in a skirt that subverted the implication of length. Speaking of skirts, the full-length striped nylon example in Look 4 was wonderful. Why does sportswear ignore this garment? Apparently conventional checked tailoring was slyly radicalized by split armholes and competing flashes of color. This was a collection both about collars (the most messed-with element in Abe’s ostensibly anarchic but in reality highly considered process) and colors—there were many beautiful contrasts and choices made here.During this show Abe played some Shazam-resistant freeform jazz, all enraged-bee percussion below scattergun horn. The collection read to the eye as a form of jazz played out through fashion. It was anything but easy listening, but once you gave it your full attention the rewards were highly stimulating and satisfying.
27 June 2022
In the film shot with this lookbook, the glass tunnel runway was flanked on each side by 40 men and women dressed in the soberly symmetrical, charcoal-suited attire of the commuter. Alongside these blurrily monochrome scurrying extras, the model Kolor wearers resembled parrots amongst pigeons.Junichi Abe’s clothes do indeed offer color, and of a kind not limited to visual hue. The way in which he assembles his garments is reminiscent of mixing paint. Take a check women’s jacket, for instance, oversizedly chic in itself. Then splice into it a cable-knit open sweater in green that runs under the lapel but on the surface beyond, up to the printed wool shoulder. Suddenly you have a distinctly new tone of knit-tailored hybrid.Another Kolor technique is to create depth by literally excavating into the fabric of the generic in order to mine visual surprise. Key examples here included the red duffle coat split asunder at the collar and hem, Look 2’s semi-unpeeled chesterfield top coat, and the dungarees whose denim was seemingly scalpel sliced at its bib.Abe again fashioned the attractively strange from the utterly familiar by cut and pasting order into disorder. Who wants to be a pigeon when you can be a parrot?
22 January 2022
By placing his models on a walking-paced treadmill then encircling them with camera equipment mounted on busily questing robot arms, Junichi Abe presented his finished looks as if they were still on the production line. What jarred so nicely against that human-as-digital-product, fashion-Skynet, mass-production vibe was that the looks the AI-powered limbs were filming were anything but standardized.Abe’s considered eclecticism and complex unorthodoxy are deployed to illustrate how much more attractive the idiosyncratic can be than the strictly synchronized. Here in both menswear and womenswear there were heaps of portmanteau pieces layered into looks whose apparent chaos belied the precise planning and placement behind them. Abe creates Frankenstein fashion fusions with great finesse. Here they included topcoats fused with pique polos blended with knitwear; sweats blended into stadium jackets over sashed skirts; lace-hipped T-shirts over olive combat skirts; suit skirt womenswear pieces; and softly dimpled cotton shirting layered under orphan panels of fine-gauge cardigan parts. Some pieces of outerwear, including a peacock blue denim trucker for men and an olive raincoat for women, came cut with panels of clear material in order to offer a view of the garments’ inner workings, not unlike the movement-exposing window on the back of a fancy watch. Occasional flashes of “duct tape,” meanwhile, hinted at the studious slash-and-stitch thinking behind Abe’s excellent pre-mixed and matched experiments in matrix-glitching individualism.
25 June 2021
This Kolor show was streamed live from Tokyo—where behind a set of gnarled and leafless trees you could spot a real, live audience! As usual, Juniche Abe presented both menswear and womenswear simultaneously. According to his notes, the collection represented a push to incorporate minimalism into his signature maximalism, in order to bring “a new style of simplicity where complexity also coexists within.”To detect the “simple” often demanded a knotty negotiation with the complex. Finely tailored trenches and camel coats lurked under bib-like pieces of collar sometimes adorned with swatches of material that looked to have been adapted from olive militaria. On the shadowy runway, menswear jackets cast a coherent slimmed down silhouette which when emerged into patches of light proved to be shaped in panels of different fabrics. Knitwear was deconstructed and sourced from different weights, patterns, and provenances to make attractively complex mongrel wearables.If Abe’s thesis didn’t convincingly stand comparison with its result, the collection itself well merited serious scrutiny. Because that minimal schminimal hoo-ha apart, this was a riotously compelling stew of slow-brewed ingredients blended into a deliciously complex whole. Sportswear, checked ’70s inspired pieces, and irregular blurs of burgundy tulle were cut against each other to create a fusion folk-costume drawn from global references that was distinct yet sometimes felt akin to the wonderful work of Antonio Marras. Coherent? Yes. Simple? Absolutely not. That fortunate audience had much to enjoy.
23 January 2021
Juniche Abe said that here he was trying to revive the “elegance, snob, simple, decadent” mood he enjoyed conjuring for a collection back in 2011, but with an altered aesthetic recalibrated for now. If those four elements might seem mutually exclusive, well, not for this designer. His wearable collages use highly technical practice to combine an eclectic abundance of template garments into finished products of great complexity and impact.Here Yusuke Tanaka’s dizzying film presentation, a stop-motion taken by 26 iPhones that accelerated or slowed according to the tempo of Kikagaku Moyo’sSmoke and Mirrors, shows that complexity from every angle (and features a great cameo at 5:30). In an email Abe said he had been especially smitten by the altered drape actioned by inserting undersized garments within generous ones; micro-dosed examples include looks 1 and 6. He added that the effects of the lockdown have left him musing on many notions, including: “Is there any way we can show much more detailed images or feel of fabrics online?”Certainly it’s frustrating when looking at garments such as his virtually, unable to take them from the rail, turn them inside out, and work out what has been combined, where and how, as we do during the usual frazzled Paris appointment. Yet there were different elements to enjoy here: the psychedelia of the music reflected the psychedelia of the clothes, all chaos theory collisions that stretch wearable logic while retaining it, wantably.
12 July 2020
Juniche Abe said that here he was trying to revive the “elegance, snob, simple, decadent” mood he enjoyed conjuring for a collection back in 2011, but with an altered aesthetic recalibrated for now. If those four elements might seem mutually exclusive, well, not for this designer. His wearable collages use highly technical practice to combine an eclectic abundance of template garments into finished products of great complexity and impact.Here Yusuke Tanaka’s dizzying film presentation, a stop-motion taken by 26 iPhones that accelerated or slowed according to the tempo of Kikagaku Moyo’s Smoke and Mirrors, shows that complexity from every angle (and features a great cameo at 5:30). In an email Abe said he had been especially smitten by the altered drape actioned by inserting undersized garments within generous ones; micro-dosed examples include looks one and six. He added that the effects of the lockdown have left him musing on many notions, including: “Is there any way we can show much more detailed images or feel of fabrics online?”Certainly it’s frustrating when looking at garments such as his virtually, unable to take them from the rail, turn them inside out and work out what has been combined, where and how, as we do during the usual frazzled Paris appointment. Yet there were different elements to enjoy here: the psychedelia of the music reflected the psychedelia of the clothes, all chaos theory collisions that stretch wearable logic while retaining it, wantably.
12 July 2020
Juniche Abe is by no means the only hybridist in fashionland, but he is absolutely one of the most accomplished. In these two collections (he presented both fall menswear and pre-fall women’s alongside each other in Paris) Abe continued to refine a technique that’s almost akin to creative taxidermy. He pulls apart groups of garments with different structures, fabrics, and backstories, then assembles them into beautifully mutant ensemble pieces.“It looks very simple but it has a very complicated construction,” said Abe as we contemplated an overcoat made from four conjoined garments: to the left side a dark blue Harrington jacket under an Armani-shouldered, peak lapel gray wool double-breasted (but with only one breast), and to the right an olive MA-1 bomber under a classic trench. Despite Abe’s comment, this didn’t look very simple at all, but it did look good. His mixed-up knitwear featured up to three “broken then fixed” source garments refashioned to reveal geologically clashed continents of pattern divided by layers of fray. In women’s this extended into double-necked and triple-armed garments.Particularly strong were old-school Brit multihued houndstooth check pieces played against the synthetic or casual: a country coat with lightning-flash embroidered ribbing under a deep green trench for men, and a double-faced, leather piped Rive Droite coat blended with a jean jacket. Abe usually shoots these collections on the streets of Tokyo, where the multidimensional mixed-up-ness plays nicely against the densely human background. This season his backdrop was a series of screenshots of mise-en-scènes all different and connected only in that they had caught the fancy of his jackdaw eye.
27 January 2020
Juniche Abe is by no means the only hybridist in fashionland, but he is absolutely one of the most accomplished. In these two collections (he presented both fall menswear and pre-fall women’s alongside each other in Paris) Abe continued to refine a technique that’s almost akin to creative taxidermy. He pulls apart groups of garments with different structures, fabrics, and backstories, then assembles them into beautifully mutant ensemble pieces.“It looks very simple but it has a very complicated construction,” said Abe as we contemplated an overcoat made from four conjoined garments: to the left side a dark blue Harrington jacket under an Armani-shouldered, peak lapel gray wool double-breasted (but with only one breast), and to the right an olive MA-1 bomber under a classic trench. Despite Abe’s comment, this didn’t look very simple at all, but it did look good. His mixed-up knitwear featured up to three “broken then fixed” source garments refashioned to reveal geologically clashed continents of pattern divided by layers of fray. In women’s this extended into double-necked and triple-armed garments.Particularly strong were old-school Brit multihued houndstooth check pieces played against the synthetic or casual: a country coat with lightning-flash embroidered ribbing under a deep green trench for men, and a double-faced, leather piped Rive Droite coat blended with a jean jacket. Abe usually shoots these collections on the streets of Tokyo, where the multidimensional mixed-up-ness plays nicely against the densely human background. This season his backdrop was a series of screenshots of mise-en-scènes all different and connected only in that they had caught the fancy of his jackdaw eye.
27 January 2020
There was an engaging flavor of dad clothes ripped asunder and then recombined by an inventive mind to suit the roll of a new generation in this strong Kolor menswear collection, which was shot in Tokyo. Different in the nature of its twist (and the order of lookbook backdrop), but also very effective in its collision of prettiness with apparently abstract deconstruction was the women’s collection. Discussing men’s as we raided his rail, Junichi Abe said: “This time I used lots of traditional images, like tailored jackets, chesterfield coats, and traditional checks, but using them to become pop garments.” He also mentioned Giorgio Armani, a resurgent reference across several collections this season, and something you could see in Abe’s mashed-up, loose-armhole jackets and coats.One crispy nylon olive trench with a perforated orange lining stood out especially to this browser, but from the technical-twisted slides and bags made of shining malleable jersey under aluminum under vinyl to the chopped-up check dad-gone-mad jacketing and spliced-up trousers, there was lots here to dig into.For the women's spring collection, mumsy prettiness rather than dusty dadness was the grain sent through Abe’s creative mill before being baked into fresh shapes. These included a fine long handkerchief-print silk dress iced with a narrow belt and melded to a gold-threaded knit, a loose black mesh top above a skirt in clever croc-pattern-pressed red nylon, and a many-patched dress whose skirt was a shimmering skein of metallic finished check. Sometimes those volumized check jackets and chesterfields returned, this time floral-stamped, to make a point of intersection between Abe’s mixed-up woman and Abe’s mixed-up man.
24 June 2019
There was an engaging flavor of dad clothes ripped asunder and then recombined by an inventive mind to suit the roll of a new generation in this strong Kolor menswear collection, which was shot in Tokyo. Different in the nature of its twist (and the order of lookbook backdrop), but also very effective in its collision of prettiness with apparently abstract deconstruction was the women’s collection. Discussing men’s as we raided his rail, Junichi Abe said: “This time I used lots of traditional images, like tailored jackets, chesterfield coats, and traditional checks, but using them to become pop garments.” He also mentioned Giorgio Armani, a resurgent reference across several collections this season, and something you could see in Abe’s mashed-up, loose-armhole jackets and coats.One crispy nylon olive trench with a perforated orange lining stood out especially to this browser, but from the technical-twisted slides and bags made of shining malleable jersey under aluminum under vinyl to the chopped-up check dad-gone-mad jacketing and spliced-up trousers, there was lots here to dig into.For the women's spring collection, mumsy prettiness rather than dusty dadness was the grain sent through Abe’s creative mill before being baked into fresh shapes. These included a fine long handkerchief-print silk dress iced with a narrow belt and melded to a gold-threaded knit, a loose black mesh top above a skirt in clever croc-pattern-pressed red nylon, and a many-patched dress whose skirt was a shimmering skein of metallic finished check. Sometimes those volumized check jackets and chesterfields returned, this time floral-stamped, to make a point of intersection between Abe’s mixed-up woman and Abe’s mixed-up man.
24 June 2019
For Fall, Kolor’s Junichi Abe veered into slightly more ambitious, arty territory than he’s aimed for in recent seasons. In Paris this morning he revealed both his women’s and men’s collections, which were developed with a similar resolution (though the women’s side was a bit glitzier). “It’s kind of a three-part series of ideas. I wanted one to be . . . the opposite of the image of luxury, but done in materials that are considered luxurious,” he said. “Things that are destroyed, some of which have been partially repaired. The other was about mountaineering, but mountaineering in the ’70, before they had high-tech material, before they had Gore-Tex. And the last was patchworking.”The best of these concepts was Abe’s anti-luxe sentiment. He showed a ratty scarf that had holes cut out from its ends—but the material was cashmere. For men, there was a textured blazer with those mock-moth-eaten abrasions, which exposed a quirky Hawaiian floral-print lining beneath. For women, there was a simple crewneck cashmere sweater, likewise maimed by hand. (Abe mentioned that he had instructed his factory staff exactly where, and how big, to make the cuts.) Another example, in womenswear: a great wool car coat in somber gray, but with bright red adhesive bandages zigzagging atop it.The mountain climbing and patchwork stuff was also convincing and, again, freshly myriad in effect. Collegiate sweaters were chopped with misaligned necklines; rappelling whipcords were tangled and bunched around the backs of winter jackets for both sexes. What did it all amount to, then? Abe paused. “A normal elegance,” he surmised.
20 January 2019
For Fall, Kolor’s Junichi Abe veered into slightly more ambitious, arty territory than he’s aimed for in recent seasons. In Paris this morning he revealed both his women’s and men’s collections, which were developed with a similar resolution (though the women’s side was a bit glitzier). “It’s kind of a three-part series of ideas. I wanted one to be . . . the opposite of the image of luxury, but done in materials that are considered luxurious,” he said. “Things that are destroyed, some of which have been partially repaired. The other was about mountaineering, but mountaineering in the ’70, before they had high-tech material, before they had Gore-Tex. And the last was patchworking.”The best of these concepts was Abe’s anti-luxe sentiment. He showed a ratty scarf that had holes cut out from its ends—but the material was cashmere. For men, there was a textured blazer with those mock-moth-eaten abrasions, which exposed a quirky Hawaiian floral-print lining beneath. For women, there was a simple crewneck cashmere sweater, likewise maimed by hand. (Abe mentioned that he had instructed his factory staff exactly where, and how big, to make the cuts.) Another example, in womenswear: a great wool car coat in somber gray, but with bright red adhesive bandages zigzagging atop it.The mountain climbing and patchwork stuff was also convincing and, again, freshly myriad in effect. Collegiate sweaters were chopped with misaligned necklines; rappelling whipcords were tangled and bunched around the backs of winter jackets for both sexes. What did it all amount to, then? Abe paused. “A normal elegance,” he surmised.
20 January 2019
“It’s very difficult to explain in my bad English,” said Junichi Abe in excellent English. “I wanted to make a messy image.” Accordingly, the first garment on the rack was a printed black T-shirt overlaid with another T-shirt (by apparently slapped-on sections of silver tape), this one gauze and diagonally red striped. On the inner tee were words printed in different-size fonts—including “details,” “chaos,” “patchwork,” “elegance,” and “first aid”—that were all appropriate to this fastidiously mixed-up, scrappy, and ragtag collection.Mannish shirts, jackets, pants, and skirts in checked polyester twill were cinched, gathered, and shaped by more apparently ad hoc applications of tape. Little decorative garnishes—a strip of floral at a pocket’s edge, a scrap of ruffle at a hem—were stuck on with more tape. Similarly, there were cut-into field jacket-y bombers in navy or olive that had been hacked via pasted-on strips of grosgrain, mismatched ribbing, and a flash of golden fabric taped under the right collar. A long floral dress, almost mumsy, also got the shaped-by-tape, stuck-on-tulle-frill treatment. Especially brilliant sneakers were similarly DIY flavored, a three-element mix that apparently sampled Nike, New Balance, and Hi-Tec—but was way too cleverly layered to trouble any litigiously inclined corporate IP investigators.Abe stressed “incompleteness” as a central theme. And maybe some of the sundry parts here did seem bodged together. Yet the whole of the garments they were assembled into—say, in a three-layer sportswear jacket—seemed not only complete but replete: decadently heaped with detail, in-jokes, and twists.
30 September 2018
“Purposeful messiness.” This is a quote given by Kolor’s Juniche Abe this afternoon, in describing his very good Spring collection, that stuck. He was referring to a technical, riotously colored windbreaker jacket, each part a different organ (some webbing, some nylon, some striping). This piece alone flexed the creatively colorful muscle of its designer. And in this deliberate chaos, Abe found a stable, strong beat.Other things to note: a non-stretch fabric that Abe called “concrete,” which gave a semi-boxy structure to a jumper. This was appealing. Tailored elements, in tropical wools, lent a formal foil to the kaleidoscopic sportiness elsewhere. Mountaineering accents, too, found their ways onto pockets and belts.The coolest thing about this collection, though, and in processing it, was seeing Abe’s lookbook (click through the slideshow after reading this). He photographed his models in situ at Tokyo’s Shibuya Station, a place that many say is the busiest intersection in the world in terms of foot traffic. The takeaway: The clothes fit right in with the masses, but jump out at the same time. That’s not an easy thing to pull off. Abe continues to prove that he can make salable garments that break free from the crowd.
23 June 2018
Junichi Abe summarized this women’s lineup as “messy hybrids,” which sounded catchy but didn’t do justice to his efforts. For one thing, the construction of a varsity jacket housed within a Perfecto couldn’t possibly qualify as such; it was flawlessly made. Other exciting patchwork combinations could only have resulted from similarly precise workmanship. Look how seamlessly the cluster of circles extend from a sweaterdress like an abstracted border of lace—no trace of messy anywhere.But there was some truth to certain looks appearing offhand and random, which the designer explained as a “maybe not too mature” attitude. Probed a little further, Abe admitted that this proved freeing—as though he gave himself permission to be more naive, less deliberate in creation. “It’s sometimes very strange but very inspiring to me,” he said of the way young people dress today. Ample trousers that combined check suiting and chinos felt like a teenager had spent a Saturday reconstructing her dad’s pants in lieu of shopping for new ones. By Sunday, she had studded the collar of her mother’s expensive car coat. On the subject of weekends, theWeekndmessaging in block letters on various tops had no connection with the music artist of the same name and spelling; Abe had never even heard of him.The strength of this collection was how all Abe’s reimagining and reconstructing pre-empted additional styling. Wear one of the jackets with its bricolage of fake fur, quilting, tweed, and knitwear and you would have all the statement you’d need. Striped socks married to a patent stiletto set atop a ridged rubber sole would meet your daily quota of quirk. And those jeans with the pleated chiffon overskirt were a great expression of boy-girl cool—they can’t arrive in stores soon enough. In the meantime, you could try to re-create them yourself, but chances are they’d turn out messy.
5 March 2018
“This collection is about combining the elements,” said Kolor’s Junichi Abe of Fall. “Traditional, elegant things with a teenager’s spirit and feelings.” So many designers are recalling engrams or moments from their formative years, and it’s not just in the vein of standard periodic references (the nostalgia goes deeper than just saying, for example, “the ’60s”). There’s a widespread investment of more personality and experience, and in turn, more questions and insecurities and vulnerabilities—all good things, as present company feels—suggested in the outcome. This verve of applied wistfulness has made for some really excellent clothing, and Kolor was no exception.Abe highlighted blazers that were too big—but so big that he thought they might be turned into outerwear, sleeves rolled up (there’s that notion of tradition hybridizing with something adolescent, of needing time to be grown into). Another standout series was his patched duffle coats. Extra large and charming in their color-blocked coziness, they felt collegiate and grandfatherly in tandem. “It is that—traditional and sporty. Not matching. Normally people think, ‘It’s not good, these things won’t go together.’ But I wanted to find solutions,” said Abe. And so he did.
20 January 2018
The people at Kolor prepared two lookbooks for Spring. The first features the images you see here; the second recalls David Hockney’s photo collages, with the same looks now pieced together as though an exercise in deconstruction and reconstruction. Was this altered effect suggestive of Junichi Abe’s creative process? We weren’t able to ask, given that he didn’t make the Paris trip. But generally, the meticulous designer does not break down to build up, so much as assemble instinctively. And this season, by dialing up the color and dialing down the volumes, he achieved clothing that beamed with character.What’s more, the collection seemed more active-inclined than usual, which an inspiration text confirmed: “We used tropical print with sportswear-inspired details and Pop-looking graphics in order to create a different nuance of elegance,” adding that the fabrics were chosen to “let the wind go through and change the silhouette.” Trust us when we say that the filmy botanical-print pieces that appear throughout were basically weightless; they felt and looked far more refined than the usual performance nylon. To the standard pull-cord, zip-front warm-up jacket, Abe applied satin and lace while steering clear of prissy; often, items like this prompt women to ask where they can get their own. Athletic stripes progressed to ribbon stripes in vivid hues whether arranged simply or in an optical patchwork. Kolor shows these pieces extra-extroverted, but they would have as much impact with a solid counterpoint. Collegiate references that appeared in the men’s collection carried over here, notably as an elongated letterman jacket with sheer sleeves, or as sweatshirts with breezy organza backs. Because they’re hard to see, it’s worth mentioning that belt loops on pants were replaced with small chains—a clever bit of decoration that could evolve into a brand signature. Overall, the offering was energizing; just one item updated to your wardrobe would have that effect.
5 October 2017
“Many Japanese men of my generation are inspired by all-American, Ivy League style,” said Kolor’s Junichi Abe, bright and early in Le Marais this morning. His Spring collection pulled from that longstanding sartorial image bank, but, in now-typical Kolor practice, Abe enlivened it with sugary colors and remixes of its de facto tropes.A necktie—diagonally striped in collegiate bands—was made so thin it felt like it might dissolve in your hands. Abe wrapped it around his neck in a scarf-like manner, but it could, very well, have been tied in the more traditional, knotted way. A formal blue blazer was given an idiosyncratic spark not by the patch of a school crest, but rather a cartoonish clown-caped figure with lightning bolts for legs. And a striped crewneck had the wordPennyprinted in electric blue across its front. “For penny loafer,” laughed Abe.It didn’t end there; there was a seersucker jacket, as preppy a fabric as ever, inset with floral panels and neon orange piping, as well as a big-block madras car coat. Summing it up literally, a baseball cap made with New Era was embroidered with the stereotypes of Abe’s chosen realm, from rugby shirts to Bermuda shorts to letterman’s sweaters. Overall, his contemporary enhancement of the classics probably won’t win over traditionalists. (And there are still quite a few of them that adhere to this pseudo-dress code.) But for the lighthearted and style-confident kid, Ivy-bound or otherwise, there was plenty to want here.
25 June 2017
“I think it’s beautiful, but it’s very random,” said Junichi Abe of a patchwork skirt, but he may as well have been speaking of his lively lineup. In lieu of the runway (or even a typical presentation), the collection was shown as a photo session performance; which is to say, invitees became onlookers as models posed one by one for the photos that appear in the lookbook here. Staged, but also serving a purpose, it was the type of mildly voyeuristic experience that broke down the fourth wall, making it easier to get a close view of the designer’s signature collaging and splicing. The main elements in the opening look—fur patchwork coat, wool lace skirt, and buckled fur boots—represented three key pieces, although the recurrence of glen plaid elsewhere made a strong case that this collection was rooted in repurposed tailoring. Abe has a way of giving women’s wardrobe classics an extroverted kick—see: the ruffled white blouse, retro striped cardigan, and graphic skirt encrusted with filmy organza. But the gray wool caban with its lowered button-front paired with elevated outdoorsy pants and a hoodie was just one example of how his menswear strengths carry over as a harmonized marriage of sartorial and sport.Looking at the outfits during the shoot—the dress, with its integrated, draped scarf, or the funnel-neck, patchwork blouson with a corresponding skirt—it became clear that nothing need be added to them. Abe offers the complete statement. He insisted the point is not to belabor things, but rather to design intuitively and according to the retro-font mantra,Push your mind, that fronted a T-shirt. “It’s not too sophisticated. It’s like kids playing,” he explained. Aha! Maybe that’s why this collection would work well for women of all ages.
9 March 2017
“Sophistication, but with something sloppy . . . something dirty. That’s the idea,” saidKolor’s Junichi Abe of his autumnal ruminations. If Fall’s first look—a red plaid shirt-jacket with an oddly placed, lumpen cargo pocket—was an indicator of the “dirty” and the “sloppy” the designer was gunning for, it still looked pretty natty. It soon became clear that those words were manifested more in regard to mix and mash-up than in terms of anything literal.It is Abe’s particular skill to blend multi-referential textures across a soft, if not soothing, palette—today, his mind went to, say, an ocher corduroy button-down with a collar ringed in blonde fur. So weird, but so good! Cream-hued shearling was window-framed around purple nylon to comprise a vest; a great blanket-striped jacket was trimmed at the waist with washed-out denim.That all being said, a Kolor runway can get a little sleepy (some of the plainer pieces this afternoon were . . . well, just that), but Abe exalts when he nails that melodic sweet spot of contemporary sportswearaveca twist. Look no further than the footwear for Fall. While the furry examples—similar to the shoes seen at Prada, as it happens—were take them or leave them, the multi-tonal suede Chelsea boots were excellent. Those hit a lust-inducing high note.
19 January 2017
“Something not exactly precise . . . something more vague” was the feeling that Junichi Abe said he was after with his latest women’s collection forKolor. This type of answer is typically maddening stuff coming from a designer, but in this case, the irony was inescapable: Elements of this collection were actually the most approachable that they’d been in seasons. There was still the odd T-shirt widened across the middle via a balled-up tulle underlay, or a particularly elephantine pair of dropped-crotch trousers, but generally the presentation held a sincere feeling of balance.Shrunken bomber jackets in fuchsia and khaki with orange piping seemed destined for streetwear ubiquity, as was the full-sleeved version in camo print (worn over a flowing black dress with Victorian-era ruching on the bust). Asian motifs, floral prints, and embroidered organza and chiffon were paired with men’s suiting fabrics like tropical wool and oxford cloth. Generally, the silhouette was one that was compact on top and looser on bottom. Interesting shirting seems to be the name of the game in the retail sector, and Abe complied: His pretty printed cotton top with sheer scarf detailing and safari-style cotton shirt with floral embroidered frills on the sleeves would be welcome additions to any modern wardrobe.
3 October 2016
“Different, but the same,” is how Junichi Abe described Kolor—generally, nonseason specific. Sounds like an analyst’s dream when it comes to luxury goods, because essentially that’s the golden mean: How to create something that satisfies fashion’s inbuilt craving for the new without alienating core customers, and conservative ones at that?That does Abe a disservice, directing attention to the bottom line rather than the creatively satisfying. This Kolor collection was about travel, as everything seems to be for Spring. “He goes around, he gets inspired,” explained Abe, simply, not snubbing his nose but certainly shrugging his shoulders at the whole notion of defining a collection through words rather than actions. He grabbed a few of the garments to better display the details that made the pieces sing: like the fact that his neon pink polyester shorts shrunk by 15 percent in the process of dyeing and hence ruched, accidentally, at the seams; or that a feather-light madras check, polyester again on one side but cotton on the reverse, was worn to clash with a Moorish geometric. Knitwear had winking bands of transparency laid across the chest, freeing the nipples of his male models—that was visible from the audience, but maybe not in images. Which is a clever ruse. It avoids his audience getting bored.The cultural and ethnic references rapidly piled up, from jangling coin medallions on American penny loafers to diaper-wrap dhoti trousers to the kimono silks of bombers. The unifying elements were the slick sportswear shapes and solid desirability. These weren’t clothes that had a special, specific appeal; they could certainly slot into any man’s everyday wardrobe without feeling like too much of a “look.” Indeed, it’s easy to imagine a man owning a single Kolor piece—a tricked-out sport jacket, say, or a bubbly-textured trench—whose combination of experimental technique and innovative textiles especially appealed to him.For some it’s a lifestyle choice; for others, it’s just a jacket. It’s not always all-encompassing—which is a brand notion many are trying to forcibly sell, but which Abe distances himself from. “I always think of balance,” he said of Kolor, and then launched into a litany of sartorial counterweights: “New and old, stiff and soft, natural and technical. If it’s right, I use it. It’s the mix that’s exciting.” Meaning it will mix into your existing closet, covertly.
24 June 2016
When it comes to decoding Junichi Abe’s womenswear designs forKolor, it typically behooves the viewer to first look to his menswear for clues. For Fall 2016, that meant tracking across the gender lines a leopard spot effect that spread across the lower hemisphere of check-patterned coats and the faux astrakhan that flocked along the top of a black wrapper. But gender lines have never really been much of an issue here, with women regularly showing up onAbe’s runway in January, and really, the Kolor customer is one who thinks more often in layers than in terms of “his” and “hers.” To that end, a gray-check peacoat with generous lapels was made of double-face suiting that sandwiched a spongy foam filament, which meant two things: Sag-proof suiting, and for the ladies, a coat that will stand up for you! Really, what more could you ask for in your outerwear?The season’s inspiration came from a desire to reconsider what a spokesperson explained as “organisms,” namely, organic matter. If that sounds a little broad, well, it was; both animal and plant motifs were in play as a swirl of prints or the faux-fur jackets and faux-fur skirts worn with pairs of (real) fur shoes. Abe isn’t the first designer to find inspiration in the delicate stasis of the world around him. He isn’t even the first this week—Rick Owens cited his recent consumption of Elizabeth Kolbert’sThe Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural Historyas a jumping-off point only a few days ago. But Abe didn’t seem to have doomsday particularly in mind, his tartan toppers erupting in gleeful frills at the hem, and his sweatshirts emblazoned with roaring tigers and the words “Peace Begins With a Smile.” From his sportswear to God’s ears.
8 March 2016
Kolor’s Junichi Abe prefers not to dwell on story lines. But before his latest show, he obliged a bit of fashion-speak, especially when asked to identify details that may not be discernible to the runway eye. It may have been too difficult to tell, for instance, that the multilayered look worn by Model No. 5 was one integrated piece. Or that a delicate hemstitch joined two contrasting panels of a sumptuous sweater coat. He likened the double-face wool suiting with an inner spongy filament to the structure of a cardboard packing box. On the runway, it had more bounce, less droop, than classic wool. Today’s Mad Men won’t need much persuading.Elsewhere, the leopard spot effect that spread across bottom halves of British check jackets and top parts of navy wool pants was flocked. Apparently, the animal touches—see also the meticulously patterned calf-hair jacket—represented Abe’s attempt to explore the common ground between our natural and modern worlds. But with that in mind, how does one explain the crooked metallic yoke on pants, or the deliberately misaligned silvery bands on a jacquard jacket?This much is clear: For Abe, perfection is relative. The seaweed green velvet, sourced from a well-known velvet factory in Japan, initially struck him as “too elegant,” so he worked to make its hue uneven. “It’s a very small thing but very important for me,” he said. But it’s also important for us. His clothes are so respected because the points of differentiation—whether a truncated placket or pleats at the knees—are often nearly imperceptible. An attraction to them speaks as much to a respect for the particularities as for the desire to be perceived as having discerning taste.
21 January 2016
Junichi Abelaunched Kolor more than a decade ago as a men’s line, one aimed at a certain type of stylish man, the kind for whom a sweatshirt is never just a sweatshirt, and whose sneaker selection is not necessarily a reflection of his athleticism. Abe’s comparatively fledgling women’s collection, now in its second official season, has a markedly similar aesthetic in mind: military touches on parkas and vest pockets, narrow-cut cotton trousers topped with netted tulle, and of course, sweatshirts, though here they boast jersey backs or pleated tulle trimmings, along with the occasional frilled, high collar—Victoriana meets Champion. Abe develops all of his textiles himself, and they are unique to the house, so what might feel de rigeur—hammered silver and gold lace, metallic-stamped organza—upon close inspection is subtly spectacular, the lace here pleated, miraculously, to show its shiny underside. Layered oversize polka-dot T-shirts were worn loose off the body and over houndstooth printed shorts, an exploration of what a brand representative (Abe was not present at the presentation) called “where good taste meets bad taste.” Ballooning skirts appeared to be made of parachutes, if parachutes were also made of tutus. Abe has never been afraid of a little color, and bold stripes reigned supreme, with flashes of fluorescent tones put to good use on trims, like that of a standout bomber jacket, slim and olive and just the type of layering piece any person needs in their wardrobe for an unpredictable spring.Shoes, a new undertaking for the designer, came in three styles: a thick, ridge-soled kitten-heel pump, a platform brogue, and a platform sandal inspired by one from the men's collection, the top rendered in richly earth-toned suede. The aim of this collection, an aide explained, is in step with much of this season: not to dress “some impossible woman,” but rather, real women, specifically, “the Kolor Man's girlfriend.” At least they're in good company.
4 October 2015
"When I started Kolor, I made a promise to myself never to explore in any apparent way themes such as military or sports," Junichi Abe said after today's Kolor show, a delicately masculine affair of reconfigured tailoring, somber hues, volumes, and military detailing. "Of late, I have changed my mind."Thankfully, Abe knows that coherence, as a design virtue, is only effective when it comes sprinkled with a little incoherence. Hence the concession to militarism. Kolor keeps evolving slowly but steadily, and this new collection, slightly harder than usual in its martial finesse, was a welcome step forward. The goings got a little bit darker than expected, and fabrics a little bit sturdier: A papery cotton canvas was used profusely on trousers and shorts that produced an unmistakable sound when models walked by.The tropes of militaria were all featured, from camouflage patterns to outsize utility pockets, but they were reinterpreted through the Kolor lens, getting soft and blurry, in a charming way. The look was layered, with a crisp precision to it. The most interesting part of the collection, beyond the painterly sportswear we're familiar with, was the light tailoring done in dry suiting wools: subtle and exact, yet slightly anarchic in its unbalanced volumes. With Abe, everything is in the small details, which is a plus in our age of blatant hyper-visibility.
25 June 2015
When Junichi Abe launched Kolor 11 years ago, he flanked menswear with a small women's spin-off. The effort eventually grew into a complete collection, passing somehow under the radar outside of Japan, but it is now being presented in Paris.Abe did not attend today's intimate gallery installation. Displayed on mannequins and with no press notes to describe the pieces—the Japanese remain true masters of thoughtful subtraction—the collection nonetheless spoke volumes about Kolor's proclivity for mixes and hybrids, as well as a unique chromatic sensibility.There was something Western/Native American going on here, in an echo of January's menswear: rusty tones, tactile decorations, moccasin-influenced sneakers, and blanket skirts. As usual, Abe played with the intersection of the masculine and feminine: layering lace over a melton bomber or a somber coat; slashing a trenchcoat into a long skirt. A dotted green pattern splashed onto dresses and blouses provided an eccentric touch.This collection was probably Kolor's most accomplished so far. The layered silhouettes felt connected with the widespread preoccupation for urban protection, while Abe's take on embellishment felt considered and fresh. Sweaters and knits were particularly appealing, all rhythmic patterns and welcoming forms. However, things did not work particularly well below the waist: Silhouettes sometimes looked frumpy and a bit clumsy, with too much volume around hips and thighs. If he plans to succeed in the Western market, Abe will have to work a little bit more on his bottoms, while keeping his trademark, and hugely appealing, subtle touch.
8 March 2015
The best adjective to describe Junichi Abe, the designer behind Japan's relentlessly growing label Kolor, would besubtle. Abe is as subtle an individual as he is in his approach to fashion-making. While other Japanese stalwarts, old-school as well as new-school, lean toward the bold, the extreme, at times even the farcical, Mr. Abe is extremely considered in his choice of colors, shapes, and materials. Which doesn't mean he avoids strong style statements. He just delivers them with remarkable softness. "Balance—that's what is important for me," Abe said backstage after today's show.With its intricate patterns and decorative geometries in rusty, organic hues, the collection exuded a vague, if persistent, Native American/Western feel. "I wanted to imbue a touch of folk without making things too literal," said Abe. That meant a lot of pattern, blanket tailoring, and a stress on the charmingly tactile. Think a smattering of cutout suede jean pockets applied along the hem of a sturdy coat, or ribbons drawing geometries on a blazer. The nomadic allure was highlighted by the striped shawls and moccasin-hued stitched sneakers. Loose yet controlled, the silhouettes had a pleasingly urban ease, which is another Kolor trademark.What's charming about the label is, precisely as the name states, the unique variety of colors the clothes come in. Abe has a painterly eye. It's rare to see so much chromatic refinement in contemporary menswear. A coat in a vibrant shade of pumpkin orange might sum it up perfectly: bright and strong, yet—once again—subtle.
22 January 2015
Who's afraid of a little color? Not Kolor's Junichi Abe. While the label is a healthy 10 years old, the Japanese designer (whose wife is Chitose Abe of Sacai) has been spicing up Paris men's week for only a handful of those, and he seems to be getting quite a kick out of it. After all, "formal is boring," he said backstage. "Life needs to be exciting. It needs lots of salt and pepper."As promised in the very name, an intrepid color sense, rather than any of the usual touchstones, lies at the heart of the designer's vision. "I was not inspired by any film, any music, any era," he said. Instead, for his men's collection, Abe sprinkled color liberally in nearly every look, to mesmerizing effect. He splashed bold, incongruous stripes across layered tees, jackets, pants, and shorts—typically with a clashing bib-front insert—and expertly combined moody hues and flashy fluorescents.In addition to his riotous colors, Abe managed to merge a variety of disparate fabrics, ranging from neoprene and perforated athletic mesh to a knitted material and stonewashed blue denim. While his occasional attempt at graphic block lettering (as in "Do Not Enter") and the few peeks of black lace seemed one too many details, such missteps were few in number. They served to stress just how good the hits were and how gratifyingly eye-opening the collection was overall.
25 June 2014
When Junichi Abe has a choice to make, he always chooses both. His fashion, similar to that of wife Chitose Abe's of Sacai and many of their fellow bricolaging Japanese designers, favors "and" over "or." It makes his collections a treat to turn over, backward and inside out, though it occasionally means one season can look much like the next.Abe resists separating his collections by inspiration, too. He collects photos, and then dredges his scrapbooks for inspiration. "This is in, this is out," he said, as he mimed separating the wheat from the chaff. "I'm looking for my mind."Fall's photo was of a group of people all standing around together. It's a mark of Abe's off-kilter eye that a picture of togetherness stirred thoughts instead of individuality. He wanted to celebrate freedom, he said—which is to say, theorin theand.This season, he embraced some of the totems of trad. There were traditional menswear patterns like plaid and gunwale check, and professorial details like elbow patches stitched to jacket sleeves. But a push one way at Kolor results in a pull another. That gunwale check was doubled, on one memorable parka, with a hairy, faintly animal-print polka-dot Abe designed himself. The elbow patches seemed to spore: Patches cropped up on shoulders and backs, too. Even the casting of men at a men's show was called into question. Following a growing trend at menswear this season, Abe slipped a lone girl into the ranks.
15 January 2014
"I want to get into my collection some happiness." It was a surprising admission from Kolor's chief engineer, Junichi Abe. The Japanese designer is not usually morose—sartorially or personally—but his clothes always radiate a tweaked, mad-scientist cleverness: thought more than feeling. His good mood took the form of print, a brave new world. "I never use print. I don't dislike print, but I haven'tlikedit before," he said. But vacation does funny things to people. He'd never been to Florence before the invitation from Pitti, and while all of his fabrics were already in development—Kolor creates all its own, from the crunchy, papery treated nylon that gave Bermuda shorts some heft to the profusion of florals on cotton organza—the new surroundings seem to have coaxed a sunnier new disposition. His colors, in fact, felt a little sun-bleached: light blues and salmon oranges accented his usual palette of dark neutrals, as if they'd been fading, along with the rest of Pitti's wilted attendees, under the day's blazing Tuscan sun.In any case, flowers were blooming everywhere, covering double-breasted suits, panels of Abe's new, baggier shorts, and short-sleeve Hawaiian shirts. He is loath to overexplain his collections—"No references," he said backstage. He managed to find for his venue what might be Florence's most a-referential space: an old, stonepelote basquecourt, seemingly selected to counterbalance all the historic associations of Florence'spalazzi.You find yourself sleuthing out your own: Are these slightly crumpled men tropical explorers? Castaways? (Just then, a bucket hat à la Gilligan happened by.) There are no answers. Only the quiet sweetness of clothes. In past collections, that quiet had been pierced by a shock of oddity or surprise, often a blast of electric color (lime green, orange). That would have been welcome here. "Reality is very important," Abe said. "But too much reality is boring. I need some fantasy." The fabulously beaded flower sandals—fantasy and oddity in equal measure—fit the bill.
19 June 2013
Kolor shows in Paris, but is most assuredly notofParis. It exists very much in its own, self-defining world. Which makes it all the more curious that Junichi Abe manages, without falling into the slipstream, to touch on each season's pressure points and trends. Designers have been embracing the northward creep of the turtleneck: Here were Abe's tripartite sweaters, trompe l'oeil mash-ups of turtleneck, V-neck, and cardigan at once. It's been a season of renewed emphasis on the suit, and here Abe came with a collection more structured and more (if you can use this word of Kolor) traditionally sartorial than many of his more fluid outings. Do the winds that sweep international fashion turn his weather vane, too? Could be. Or perhaps it's that each Kolor collection, various and sundry as it is, includes a little of everything, hot and not regardless of the fashion moment's whims. You can say this for him: When it's good, he doubles down. No other way to explain what amounted to twinsets: knit on knit in the traditional, matchy-matchy set, sure, and topcoat on matching waistcoat, but also mesh-covered puffer pieces layered one on the same.
16 January 2013
Kolor is a closely guarded secret quickly becoming disclosed. Junichi Abe is tight-lipped about his motivations and tight-fisted about its distribution: He's been known to turn stores away for seasons before allowing them their order forms.The tide is lately turning. Last season, he debuted the collection on the Paris runway, and for his sophomore show, the seats were filled with international editors and retailers alike. The Kolor look is largely constant. It relies on custom-developed Japanese fabrics—cottons, polys, Cupros, and so on—often melded one atop another over the shifting terrain of a single piece. For the opening look, bands of mauve silk fluttered along the hems of a pair of hardier shorts. That set the tone for the collection. Abe's tailoring is feather-light, given to swing, and often looks like it's enjoyed a long bath. Structure is stricture in Kolor's world, which is why even pants that begin with a tailored waistband to the north descend into lounge pant territory below. Familiar to the faithful, but that crowd should continue to grow. It wears its washing well.
27 June 2012