For AW26, Junya Watanabe delivered one of his most contained menswear shows in recent memory, centring the collection – titled The Best, Dressed – around tailoring and, in particular, the wool coat. Shown to a subdued jazz soundtrack among café-style tables, the clothes moved at an unhurried pace, allowing cut and construction to take precedence over concept.
With the coats as the point of entry, long, narrow silhouettes in black, charcoal and camel were shaped with a careful hand – clean shoulders, lightly defined waists, hems that skimmed rather than swamped. Some nodded to classic menswear without sentimentality: a navy admiral-style coat with a tight collar, a camel overcoat sharpened by a modest martingale. Others folded in Watanabe’s technical instincts, with nylon panels or padded linings interrupting traditional wool in a way that felt functional rather than decorative.
Patchwork tailoring appeared early on, but refined and darker than usual, worn with white shirts and slim black ties. Denim, produced with Levi’s, was cut like tailoring and styled accordingly, sitting comfortably alongside wool trousers and polished shoes. Throughout, the palette remained disciplined, and the styling – felt hats, narrow trousers, glossy leather footwear – kept the mood formal and restrained.
It was not a loud collection, nor an experimental one by Watanabe’s standards. Instead, it showed how quietly persuasive his menswear can be when he pares it back to the essentials and lets precision lead.
Photography courtesy of Junya Watanabe.
