Koji Kamiya is a likeable 30-year-old who is doing a good job of building a world around his brand, which is focused on adolescent grunge and impressive fabric innovation. “I wanted to bring in a bit more sexiness this time,” he said as he flicked through some photos of Steven Tyler. The Aerosmith singer had been a big influence on the designer for this collection, and a dash of bohemian lustiness was duly sprinkled into Kamiya’s grungy universe.
This came through most obviously in the dress shirts—a first for the brand—which were made of floaty cupro or cotton-silk, and styled under faded MA-1 jackets, pulpy knitted cardigans, and bandana-printed denim. Elsewhere distressed jeans were stitched up with boro detailing, sometimes layered with denim wrap skirts (a fun Kamiya trademark), and accessorized with studded belts made in collaboration with Hollywood Trading Company. The original footwear, with its white rubber soles, canvas uppers and hefty silhouettes, looked like the love child of a pair of Wellington boots and Chuck Taylors. As usual, there were excellent colors across the board: sweatpants in faded cherry; cobalt shorts and collars; chore jackets in blazing tangerine.
As well as sexiness, the idea was to add lightness (something we keep hearing about from menswear designers this season). Kamiya put his own spin on it, calling it “The Darkness Will Disappear” after the lyrics in a Chemical Brothers song he’d been listening to. The show, which took place in a shadowy warehouse on Tokyo Bay, featured a tough-looking trumpet player and beatboxer who provided the soundtrack
Japanese fashion audiences are not known for doling out raucous applause. (This writer has seen painfully mediocre shows in Paris or London met with stamping feet and shrieks of excitement, and great ones in Tokyo that barely inspire a patter.) But after Kamiya’s finale run this season, he felt a tangible loosening of inhibition in the room, and a rare sense of celebration in the ensuing applause. “It felt good to hear that!” he noted.