For the menswear Spring 2024 collection, Junya focused on the brand’s womenswear line as the main collaborator.
“The idea and the way of my approach in the creation of Junya Watanabe is completely different to MAN, so they are different brands to me. I wanted to incorporate clothes like Junya Watanabe into MAN.”
Junya Watanabe
“Something Punk”
Unexpected but unapologetically Junya; his typical menswear shifted to envelope more of his experimental and ever-masterfully orchestrated works, most usually seen in his Women’s Ready-to-Wear collections.
A sign that Watanabe-san really believes in himself when he stated ‘I want to design something innovative, something that no one has ever seen before, something that will even change someone’s life and mindset.’ In a recent interview for his 30th Anniversary.
Choosing to utilise and employ his patchworking and reconstruction practices in a way which further emboldens his designs.
So having the male form as a base to work from, and whilst incorporating more androgynous features and pieces of adornment in the collection, Junya Watanabe for his Spring Summer 2024 collection tackles new challenges whilst bringing forward his eponymous work on his ever winding journey. Punk is still Punk, and Junya has the field to play with for his vision to come to light on the day of the reveal.
Utilizing an array of his iconic design practices, Watanabe-san develops silhouettes and forms that would be typical to see on his women’s runways in a more aptly masculine way. Long-line overcoats and tunics cinched and paneled to offer a more palatable ease of movement for the eventuality of action.
The choice to incorporate and work in a genderless or androgynous way, with skirted pieces and specific designs utilized in his women’s collections, the heavy leather work in patchworks and long-lines, and reworked biker technical jackets that can be seen here, and in the women’s Fall Winter 2022 and Spring Summer 2023.
Continuing on his journey of innovative omnipotence, Watanabe-san has brought together a badass menagerie of stylish looks, afforded to those which self-importance seeks, and where stylish functionality reigns. He may have built upon his designs from past seasons somewhat, for his MAN label, he has made leaps and bounds.