Who had a Jamiroquai comeback on their fashion bingo card for 2022? Yesterday, Junya Watanabe unveiled his latest collection, which was created in association with Jay Kay, the frontman of the jazz-funk outfit, whose big fuzzy hats cemented him a fashion icon across late ‘90s MTV.
Skipping the catwalk, the Japanese designer instead remixed the band’s iconic music video for “Virtual Insanity”, with models dancing inside a white-tiled cube like the original. Gliding across the floor on Heelys – yup, they’re coming back too – three models moved in effortlessly cool formations, choreographed by Takeatsu Nashimoto.
Popping-and-locking their way around the room, models wore Jay Kay-inspired togs: top-heavy parkas worn with skinny patchwork jeans, rolled up to reveal a new low-top sneaker collab with New Balance. The designer also worked with both Levi’s and Carhartt, creating ace trenchcoats spliced with both brands’ workwear denim.
Throughout, Watanabe uses Navajo patterns and Mexican serapes to fashion his pieces. The designer is quick to dismiss accusations of cultural appropriation, noting in his press release that both the Secretariat of Culture of Mexico and Pendleton Woolen Mills were involved in the creation of the collection.
And obviously, there were Jay Kay’s hats, pastiched by buzzy London milliner Benny Andallo, coming in leopard print, flower-power prints and sitting alongside the hatmaker’s own signature baker boy hats. Full-on nineties nostalgia through and through.
Photography courtesy of Junya Watanabe.
