Forget athleisure — Y-3’s collection for spring was great sporty fashion.
The 22-year partnership between Yoji Yamamoto and Adidas — marking the first sports-fashion brands’ collab — is an unlikely pairing that works well.
“It’s combining two spaces: So the artisan, the anti-beauty, the legendary fashion designer that hates fashion, and taking that authentically [then] colliding it with who we are and what we have to work with,” explained Stefano Pierre Beruschi, head of design, Adidas collaborations and partnership.
This season’s Y-3 collection was inspired by the contra-natural.
“It’s taking the ethos of dancing within this paradox of technical and also effortless; the cutting edge with the frayed edge,” explained the designer, who worked both with organic fabrics and recycled synthetic materials.
Crystalizing that dynamic duo was a long yellow silk dress, with synthetic black linear details. In some places, the yellow changes, since it was dyed with rust.
Silhouettes were strong, veering well away from traditional tracksuits and other athletic gear. A cotton drill canvas cargo jacket came with asymmetric pockets. Other garments were made with Adizero — Adidas’ lightweight materials and construction. There was a roomy black parka with vantablack details finished with triacetate. A gray tracksuit’s piping on individually sewn panels outlined a typographical map of Mount Fuji.
“I would really call it sportswear-couture,” explained Beruschi.
It’s highly elevated sportswear. Elements of Adidas’ signature Adibreak Snap Track Pant were merged with those of a formal martial art pant. Snapped, Y-3’s version seemed pleated, while unsnapped, it was skirt-like. In another look, an asymmetric light wool skirt had three stripes down a side.
Some Y-3 sneakers were droll. One model with a thick brick-like sole nodded to the term “brick” used to connote shoes that don’t sell.
