Did you hear? It’s collaboration season, baby! Well, that’s if Junya Watanabe MAN’s Spring/Summer 2024 show at Paris Fashion Week is anything to go by.
The Japanese designer's menswear line debuted no less than 18 (!!!) collaborations in total during his show on the morning of June 23, a similar approach to the one Watanabe took for his presentation during PFW back in January.
“My collection is comprised of many collaborators, however this time I focused on Junya Watanabe (womenswear) as the main collaboration," said Watanabe in a statement.
"The idea and the way of my approach in creation of Junya Watanabe is completely different to MAN, so they are different brands to me. I wanted to incorporate clothes like Junya Watanabe into MAN."
From logo-heavy layers with Palace and more subtle donkey jackets Carhartt WIP, to plenty of New Balance sneakers and heavily patched Levi’s jeans (of course), plus a debut link with Stüssy in the form of a sleeveless black hoodie, the Japanese designer's latest round of collaborative link-ups were drip-fed throughout, some more subtle than others.
But, as if the five collaborations weren't enough for one season, Junya Watanabe also revealed pieces with [take a deep breath] Brooks Brothers, C.P Company, Gregory, Lousy Livin, MXDVS, Bates, Alpha Industries, Baracuta, Oakley Factory, Patta, Reigning Champ, Maison Kitsune, and Mackintosh.
Away from the collaborations, it was business as usual for Watanabe with statement grunge-inspired hairstyles complimenting the designer’s typical array of stand-out styles rendered in leather, mesh, and perhaps (?!) GORE-TEX.
Even the new Louis Vuitton creative director, Pharrell Williams, was in attendance wearing his reworked custom Tiffany sunglasses, that's after his debut men's show in Paris earlier in the week.
As is often the case with Junya Watanabe, the specifics of each collaboration will be revealed in the not so distant future. Some are obvious (Stüssy hoodie, Palace jacket), some less so.
So, for now, we should sit tight and do our best to zoom in at pixelated image and attempt to decipher whose pixel is whose.
