Most know Jun Takahashi as the mastermind behind one of Japan’s most esteemed fashion labels, UNDERCOVER, but the 56-year-old maker of grail-level ragged jeans is also an established artist, with standalone exhibitions presenting his surreal portraits and bronze sculptures.

As an esteemed artist and fashion designer, who better to create an art-themed fashion collection?

Takahashi’s been up to this kind of cross-disciplinary creation for years, weaving everything from still-life paintings by Emma Stone to street art by Futura into his collections, and Spring/Summer 2027 does the same. Except it’s the return of a storied collaboration from a decade ago. 

One of UNDERCOVER’s most memorable artist link-ups was a Fall/Winter 2016 link-up with Belgian painter Michaël Borremans. A hooded figure from Borremans’ unsettling Black Mould series covered the back of a parka with a matching face-covering hood, and the back of a besuited man’s head emerged from a black sweater while two hands shuffled paper on another knit, the body they’re attached to out of view. The collection captured the eerie dreamlike feel of Borremans’ work while also producing graphic-heavy but easily wearable clothes. That’s a great balance to strike. So, why not strike it again?

Eleven years after the original Michaël Borremans collection dropped, the second round is more expansive and tries out some different techniques, but is just as much a slam dunk as the first go-around. so good.

The famous UNDERCOVER approach of using the back of a parka as a canvas once again prevails, this time with Borremans’ dimly lit flower arrangements or more cryptic backs-of-heads as the chosen artworks. But that’s just the beginning.

Paintings emerge as small squares printed on the sides of jeans and cardigans, mysterious faces are just about visible on all-black shirts, and a painting of worse-for-wear flowers covers voluminous, baggy shorts. The compositions and cuts of the clothes help create a cohesive whole, as does the strength of the artwork, which has never appeared on clothing before.

That last point is especially important because we’ve collectively had enough of seeing the same roster of artists used by every other brand. Takahashi knows how to do an artist collaboration the right way.

Although that shouldn’t be a surprise, he’s literally an artist!

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