If there is a single thing to say about Small children of the Discordance, it is that every collection is a deeply own review of the point out of mind of its founder and inventive director Hideaki Shikama. The typical thread in Shikama’s perform, past his signature upcycled bandanas, graphic get the job done, and extremely tactile cloth explorations, is his singular skill to explain to his stories via interpretations of the unfastened ideas behind his seasonal ideas. The idea guiding his fall shipping, and the name he gave the selection, is “Interventions.”
“It follows this thought of improve, and that adding a solitary component, no matter how modest, always provides transform,” Shikama reported via a translator from his Paris showroom. The inevitability of transform has been in the designer’s mind as he completes his sixth season displaying on the Milan calendar digitally. His first strategy, he claimed, was to debut in Milan with a physical show in 2020, but then arrived the pandemic, and subsequently arrived wa. The two events—or interventions—disrupted our communal atmosphere and his very own way of doing the job. For fall, Shikama was considering about the outcomes of these interventions, and, extra mostly, ruminating on his vision of an at-peace, write-up-conflict planet.
These thoughts met most literally in the designer’s novelty textiles. Adhering to Small children of the Discorance’s typical modus operandi, the lineup is designed on an eclectic, albeit curated, blend of upcycled and new textiles, this time grounded in military surplus fabrics. In Shikama’s best earth, he reported, there would be no have to have for armed forces-don, so excess uniforms and materials would be upcycled for completely ready-to-have on. The most persuasive pieces in this team were the armed service liner jackets, parachute pants, and jumpsuits, all augmented with graffiti in collaboration with a Japanese artist, who is painting every piece by hand. Also worthy of zooming in on are the jackets and trousers in which Shikama and his crew distressed and reduce the navy textiles in geometric designs, unveiling both a next layer of the shell cloth or upcycled souvenir bandanas. To hammer residence this reimagination of military services-use in a tranquil planet, Shikama’s team concocted their possess camo print with photos of trees and other natural factors taken at parks in Japan.
Elsewhere, bandana paisleys ended up printed on fleece, which intentionally exposed the white cloth beneath (“like when there’s a layer of dust after a war,” Shikama explained). There ended up also things made with a variety of classic t-shirts (like a Pink Floyd band shirt and a Thrasher magazine tee), and a trench coat built with remnants of vintage coats and lined in yet more memento bandanas. Most hanging was a double-breasted kimono jacket and matching trousers with embroidered motifs. Shikama normally involves a customized seem amid his extra workwear-encouraged silhouettes—these are often some of his best looks.
The appeal of Shikama’s Youngsters of the Discordance is the way in which he distills his generally nostalgic and emotional ideas into tactile and quickly recognized clothing. For spring he informed the story of street society in the Japanese metropolis of Yokohama, in which he was born and lifted, and for this time he imagined a post-conflict world. What story will he tell subsequent?
