Jun Takahashi’s Undercover registers with the fashion elite, and since its inception in 1993, this gothic-flexed and Tokyo-based brand has been permanently making cool. Takahashi’s creative process is fascinating. It sits at a crosscurrent of art and contemporary culture and mixes streetwear with collegiate codes. In the past he’s referenced renaissance art alongside science fiction and fused theatre with film. For his spring show tonight, the surprise return of a former collaborator, the photographic artist Cindy Sherman: Takahashi was given access to her various works.
One of Sherman’s most enduring images of a woman staring into mid-space (‘Untitled Film Still #21, 1978’.) came digitally printed on to jackets and shirts. Then a strange turn up for fans, as the designer took cartoon-like cut-outs of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and fused them on to felted wools. The biggest surprise, however, was the sheer amount of tailoring the designer put on the runway: beautifully pitched suits and coats; one shirt had a giant cobweb creased into it. This was goth heaven.
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
