Japan’s fashion talents are often overlooked on the global scale; the country’s most emerging designers are frequently cast under an all too comparative light that is the shadow of Queen Rei and King Yohji. Yet few could realistically match their gargantuan significance – at least not immediately in any case. It is as if the stubborn perspective of the fashion world’s tastemakers has had its fill of Japanese and, for whatever reason, is reluctant to look back to land of the rising sun for rising design talent. Maybe Yojiro Kake could change that.
The Hyogo-born designer first studied in Osaka before continuing his education in Florence, responding to the belief that Europe would allow him to better establish his own ideas and creativity. By now, for AW14, Kake is able to demonstrate a mature refinement of his vision and as a result has offered some of his best work to date. This collection’s pieces play artfully with shape and texture, each originating from reconstruction and thus reinterpretation of classic menswear tailoring. Standout garments include a boxy mac, the standard structure of which is revised with sophisticated irreverence, and a quilted coat which typifies the designer’s penchant for experimenting with form. As is to be expected in anything great, the genius is in the balance, and specifically in Kake’s case, his knack for pinpointing the perfect middle ground between the now and the new.