Fear Simple, Beautiful Clothing? You'll Loathe A.PRESSE
Brand: A.PRESSE
Season: Fall/Winter 2022
Release Date: Summer 2022
Buy: Happy Plus, South Store, INS, Acoustics, ONENESS, Asterisk
Editor's Notes: Currently, there's an unspoken movement of simple, high-quality clothing sweeping through a host of Japan's best indie boutiques. It's an aesthetic that's perhaps best epitomized by young label A.PRESSE, which has revealed its Fall/Winter 2022 looks just in time to become a prime example.
From Farah Japan to Digawel, there's been a push for Japanese brands both young and old to create simple, high-end clothing that hearkens back to bygone eras.
Sound vague? It kind of is but, basically, think of it as a revival of the post-Ivy style that dominated Japanese menswear in the ' 60s and '70s — vintage vibes dominate with collegiate-style sweaters, crisp shirts and cropped trousers all realized in neutral tones and hardy fabrics.
Just check out ETS.MATERIAUX, Neat, Standard Journal, and basically everything available at L'ECHOPPE, which has become a hub for this style of kinda geeky, kinda retro menswear.
A.PRESSE, founded by an anonymous design collective, launched last year with a simple mantra that's a worthy slogan for this leaderless movement.
"Tired of pointless shopping, we decided to create an editorial department that could create things in order to solve the mystery [of staple clothing]. We want [to make] things that we want to wear every day. That's the only desire for clothes."
This aesthetic is realized, appropriately, through the kind of vintage-inspired gear — harrington jackets, cardigans, long-sleeved polos, creased and cropped slacks — that Tyler, the Creator has made his own, as evidenced by A.PRESSE's FW22 shots.
It's all extremely simple stuff, apparel that probably wouldn't make the average bystander pay any mind. But that's part of the point, too.
A.PRESSE and its peers are only interested in creating perfectly simple stuff for the sake of personal expression, which is why these labels are reaching back in time to mine timeless tropes for their own devices. Contemporary trends begone!
