On the penultimate evening of Pitti Uomo, Japan-born, Milan-based and Saville Row-trained designer Satoshi Kuwata of Setchu transformed the grand halls of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (Florence’s National Library) into the setting for a fashion show. Surrounded by looming bookshelves filled to the brim with a thousand years of literary masterpieces, the lights dimmed, the audience hushed, and out stepped a gaggle of girls and boys in the brand’s AW25 pieces.
Calling the collection Tokyo ln the Arno, the show unfurled with a flurry of the designer’s best bits. Think multifunctional jackets, coats and shirts that could be worn a multitude of different ways; shortened, lengthened or disassembled. As always with Setchu, the pieces worked to fuse Japanese iconography and influences with Western styles. That meant deconstructed tartan shirt-dresses, for example, were cinched in at the waist with an obi-like belt and kimono-esque jackets folded out into unexpected silhouettes. Meanwhile prints depicted Japanese landscapes rife with bonsai trees and colourful streams, or in some places, reinterpreted the seminal piece of homoerotic literature, Genji Monogatari, painting phallic octopuses onto tufts of lace. The point was to explore the essence of “reduction” and “lessness”, so colours were largely muted and essential – black, white and grey – reminiscent of black-and-white television and newspaper.
Setchu’s guest designer slot at Pitti Uomo – and the first time the brand has ever staged a runway show – comes after its LVMH Prize win in 2023 and puts it in the league of big names like Martine Rose, Marine Serre and Grace Wales Bonner. Setchu is set for stardom.
Photography courtesy of Setchu.
