Warhol, Basquiat, Netflix? Junya Watanabe SS23 Is Nü Pop Art
It's always amused me that Junya Watanabe has shown his menswear collections during Paris Fashion Week. Not because I don't like them — Watanabe's clothes, as wearable as they are, usually end up being my favorite from the entire shindig — but because Watanabe brings together all these editors, influencers, and critics to behold a selection of chore coats and jeans.
Which is part of the appeal for me, really. I don't have a ton of interest in clothes that I can't wear, though I enjoy observing and discussing it all, and Watanabe's menswear collections are extremely underrated in their wearability.
Simultaneously, Watanabe is a master of the streetwear statement piece. Hence his Supreme collab, a blend of Watanabe classics and rebirthed archival pieces that cater to a new generation of collector.
Soundtracked by the Talking Heads, Watanabe's Spring/Summer 2023 MAN collection — his return to Paris after several seasons away — was a case study for his mastery of covetable clothing.
Like Watanabe's Fall/Winter 2022 collection, SS23 is buoyed almost entirely by collaborations, mostly provided by licensing agency Artestar.
Andy Warhol's Marilyn and Campbell's Soup Cans, Keith Haring layered doodles, Lichtenstein's blown-up cartoons, Basquiat's illustrative scrawl: it's all here. Some of the most famous New York artists of all time are represented in Junya Watanabe's Spring/Summer 2023 collection, all together as if they were part of some kind of MoMA fashion show.
Printed across shirts, jackets, denim jeans, and the interiors of blazers, Watanabe's art idols are everywhere. But they aren't doing all the talking, as Watanabe's clever patterning — Thai fisherman-inspired trousers, generously hooded coaches jackets, his signature backpack-jackets — provide canvases as intriguing as the artworks they host.
Collaborations with Netflix, New Balance — silhouettes include the RC30, 327, Numeric, and Niobium sneakers — kept things rooted in the present, while offerings from carmaker Honda and heritage German manufacturer Seil Marschall reflected Watanabe's workmanlike interests.
That's the funny dichotomy of a Junya Watanabe menswear collection. He can partner with the estates of the world's most famous artists and simultaneously recreate the ironic-workwear uniform of so many downtown hipsters, down to the floral sweater and dad cap.
In a sense, it's pop art akin to the aims of Warhol and co., wherein regular stuff is enlivened with insouciant flair. Elevated normality, that's Watanabe's menswear and I mean that in a good way.
