AW21: Junya Watanabe Staged a Concert.
When you think of legends of rock the chances of bands like Aerosmith, AC/DC, Queen, Black Sabbath, The Who, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Def Leppard, Kiss and The Sex Pistols popping up in your head is relatively high. All these bands and artists have shaped the course of popular music, and inevitably fashion, with their outrageous costumes and gimmicks that live and breathe on and outside the arena stages of the world.
Junya Watanabe’s theme this season revolved around the immortal rock spirit, as the brand notes in their press release. For the collection, Watanabe first and foremost looked at the relationship people have with those they admire in the world of rock. Cherished and collectable band t-shirts have been used for decades to signify a sense of cultural and subcultural belonging and this same idea was presented on the Junya Watanabe AW21 runway next to deconstructed classics such as MA-1 jackets, oversized blazers and skirts-turned-trousers.
The brand also presented two collaborations this season, their Levi’s collaboration which could be seen in the outerwear and their first collaboration with none other than Versace on a set of print stories that made a recurring appearance throughout the collection.
The DIY aspect shown in their cut and sew garments for AW21 further underlined the zeitgeist of making something new with what you already have. A meditation on reinterpretation through DIY, so to speak. Junya Watanabe is a master of patchwork in the world of fashion, regardless of how you look at it, and this season the Japanese designer pushed this concept even further, by incorporating Fair Isle knit patterns with brand t-shirts and faux neon shearling next to micro pleat panels.
The concept of layering cherished items of clothes that carry memories of life before lockdown, where we could chant and clap together in a sea of fellow concertgoers was the sentimental crux of the collection and as the presentation came to a close, Junya Watanabe reinterpreted none other than Angus Young’s (lead guitarist in AC/DC) iconic stage costume, closing off a collection that was pleasantly Thunderstruck, pun intended.
