Kaptain Sunshine FW23 Is Yuppiecore
Kaptain Sunshine has undergone a quiet evolution over the years and its Fall/Winter 2023 is a perfect encapsulation of the Japanese label's stylistic growth. Kaptain Sunshine has always offered urbane, prep-leaning clothes but its collections have really shifted from workwear-leaning heritage towards something I call yuppiecore.
I've written about this "trend" before, but yuppiecore is less of a movement per se and more of a mindset. Its adherents, willing or not, simply appreciate classic clothes that're dated in all the right ways.
We'll get into it but you can simply take Kaptain Sunshine's Fall/Winter 2023 collection as a visual guide.
A spread of sophisticated cold weather essentials are on hand here, with Kaptain Sunshine's signature trench coats and GORE-TEX puffer jackets returning alongside seasonal bits, like a leather-sleeved varsity jacket and check-patterned cotton flannel shirts.
The quarter-zips are zippin', the high-rise slacks are pleatin', and the melton wool toggle coats are togglin', all imminently normal-looking stuff zhooshed up by intentional, relaxed cuts and interplay between texture, pattern, and silhouette.
Kaptain Sunshine is really good at this sort of thing but its collections used to have more of a workwear bent or lean harder into heritage. Like, everything always looked good but now they look particularly effortless.
The yuppiecore look is, basically, '80s/'90s menswear-leaning clothes, all padded shoulders and biz-cas before biz-cas had been formally codified. WASP-y but not too preppy.
Yuppiecore clothes lean white collar and imply financial comfort. Practitioners may wear ties, braided belts, and fine French shoes as they see fit.
It's not a diss, for sure, and done right, yuppiecore shakes negative connotations by simply reading as clean, crisp, elegantly put together but almost by accident, Chet Baker as perpetual style inspiration.
You can see shades of Yuppiecore in the output of brands like BEAMS PLUS and American label NOAH, as well.
As for Kaptain Sunshine, I welcome this development. At the end of the day, it's all just nice, wearable clothes, and ain't nothin' wrong with that.
