UNDERCOVER and fragment design have collaborated so many times over the years — and founders Jun Takahashi and Hiroshi Fujiwara even moreso — that it's nearly impossible to catalogue every single one of their team-ups. But UNDERCOVER and fragment's latest collaboration stands tall if only because it's the first one to actually hit the runway.
First seen during UNDERCOVER's Fall/Winter 2023 runway show — note that only UC's womenswear collections are presented on Paris' catwalks, its men's lines are revealed as lookbooks — the new UNDERCOVER x fragment design is one big ode to Manuel Göttsching.
Don't know who that is? Better read up, or else some streetwear gatekeep-y type is gonna quiz you for wearing something with his name on it.
I assume if you're willing to spend the better part of $1,000 on a hairy checkerboard wool coat, $300 on a half-fair isle knit sweater, or even $100 on a co-branded UNDERCOVER/fragment T-shirt, you're willing to do a little research into Göttsching, though.
And, to be fair, Manuel Göttsching is really only obscure if you aren't well-read into the history of electronic music, though that likely includes most of the population (myself included).
Long story short, Göttsching was a pioneering electronic dabbler whose 1984 record E2-E4 was proved so widely influential that he was once jokingly called the "Göttfather" of contemporary electronic music.
E2-E4's patterned cover and spaced-out branding directly informs the UNDERCOVER x fragment collab, which is less of a collab and more like Fujiwara's favorite clothes — bombers, knit sweaters — remade with a thematic pattern, colors, and logos.
Which really sums up a lot of fragment design's output in general, really.
UNDERCOVER and fragment have overlapped plenty of times in the past, stretching back to when Takahashi and Fujiwara opened pioneering retailer NOWHERE over three decades ago and as recently as when UC and fragment dropped a four-figure leather down jacket for UNDERCOVER's 30th anniversary.
But UC and fragment also share collaborative traits, frequently teaming up with Nike, assorted luxury labels, and even random partners like clout-seeking car companies.
UNDERCOVER and fragment design's FW23 collab, which hits UC's web store on November 11, is less of a landmark moment in their history and more of a fun idea turned into a surprisingly expansive luxury line.
At least Takahashi finally got Fujiwara on the runway.
