One of Menswear's Most Modest Modern Masters Slides Out From the Shadows
If you know Comoli, you know that it's kind of a big deal that Comoli is finally on Instagram. Normally, it'd be anything but news that a clothing company joined social media. Who cares! Well, Comoli is different.
Founded by Keijiro Komori in 2011, Comoli is perhaps the most undersung of the world's best modern brands.
Akin to other immensely steezy and supremely quality Tokyo-based labels like AURALEE, A.PRESSE, and ssstein, Comoli has quietly gathered steam as it solidifies rock-solid footing in Japan while scooping a growing number of international admirers.
Unlike those other labels, however, Comoli has intentionally rejected attention. This is no hyperbole: it long ignored social media and demurred interview requests. Comoli's seasonal lookbooks were its sole public missive and they often included as many photographs of landscapes or shadows as they did clothes.Even the Comoli flagship store, a cavernous space in Minato, Tokyo, was left for interested parties to uncover.
The result was a brand that demanded a great deal of work to be deciphered, which is exactly what Comoli wanted.
The phrase "let the clothes do the talking" feels apt. And Comoli's garments do quite a bit of that. Comoli collections are incredibly nuanced despite being rendered in austere monochrome, playing off of vintage European workwear with classy fabrics that flesh out the recognizable forms. A tanktop is made suave by tropical wool, a blazer is unexpectedly soft in khadi cotton, a sweater clearly inspired by American sportswear is rendered transcendent by its reversible cotton-silk form. No seasonal motifs, just unimpeachable all-purpose garments made quietly luxe by thoughtful fabric and fabrication.
Clearly, the intent of Comoli being this reserved was to underscore the necessity of its clothes being felt, appreciated, worn. Hey, it's worked for nearly 15 years! The takeaway is, if you build it, they will come — even if you make no attempt to promote it.
And then, Comoli took up the long-shunned mantle of self-promotion. Sort of.
The Japanese label quietly launched its first-ever Instagram page in August, nearly 15 years after it was founded. Think of this less like Comoli going mass than Comoli accepting its widening audience. Thus far, imagery includes grainy photographs of concerts and a disparate crew of snappy dressers clad in Comoli's inimitable black garb. No captions, no details, no pomp or circumstance.
Would you expect anything else?
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