If cutting-edge designers weren’t experimental and quirky and full of ideas, they wouldn’t be considered cutting-edge. Brian Atwood once invited people to view his shoes through peep-show windows, Luella Bartley used to introduce her collectsion at tea parties, and, this season, Gareth Pugh eschewed the traditional runway show in favor of a film.
But the Japanese designer Jun Takahashi is perhaps the first créateur to employ a series of hyperrealist, carefully staged photographs to showcase his latest Undercover collectsion—a decision he made because, in his words, “It was more fun.” The pictures are meant to echo the superhero cards children the world over collects. And with Spider-Man slated to open on Broadway in November and TRON: Legacy expected to thunder into theaters soon, Takahashi is clearly not the only one with comic-book heroes and villains on his mind.
Then again, this is Takahashi, whose body of work has combined ironic, almost menacing features (pockets with teeth in one notable past collectsion) with a real love of execution and the highest technical skill. Which means that in a photo labeled “Kico whose soul has been taken loses all emotion.” the affectless damsel in distress has a scary hole cut in her bodice—but is actually wearing demure, pink-printed rompers from Undercover’s spring 2011 collectsion.
Despite the unusual presentation, a lot of this season’s clothes are surprising wearable—a gray smocked jacket has the perfect amount of T-shirt detailing underneath; a vaguely deconstructed tuxedo jacket would kick the stuffing out of a classic evening gown.
The house plans to issue these photos as a series of cards, just like little kids collects, and if you want to carry them around with you, the company can even supply a clutch that exhibits all the wit and odd charm the line is famous for—the purse is actually a hollowed-out tome entitled T__he Encyclopedia of Undercover.
