So, this autumn/winter looks set to be the season of power partnerships: hardcore and heavyweight fashion hook-ups. Sounds saucy – but, yeah, these involve wearing lots of clothes. First Vuitton’s doing a line with Supreme and now Junya Watanabe’s collabing like crazy with North Face. Talk about high-low. Junya Watanabe has, of course, done plenty of collaboration before – he loves working with specialist craftspeople for distinct product categories, which is why you can buy Junya Levi’s and Converse, and why a whole leather collection was crafted by the Spanish Loewe brand. Watanabe likes things done right. This collection was right – right on the money, just right for his market, and rightly worthy of praise. It consisted of great clothes that will make men look brilliant, and that they’ll fall over themselves to grab. Watanabe didn’t just work with North Face to make natty outerwear – he’s done that before, after all. This time, he played with the company’s iconography, toying with their fabrications and even misusing their logo with gay abandon to create new graphic effects. He also didn’t just work with that company – there were Carhartt pieces and the aforementioned Levi’s, rounding out the Watanabe wardrobe.
