Junya Watanabe is a brand of creativity, repurposing, and inspiration. From reworking discarded textiles, to creating beautiful patchwork design garments, Watanabe always stands apart. A protégé of Comme des Garçon founder Rei Kawakubo, Watanabe incorporates the outlandish and creative nature of the brand into his own visions. For the Fall/Winter 2022 collection, Watanabe looks to relics of the past to create a new meaning. 

The aesthetic for the collection is based around David Slyvain and Holger Czukay’s collaborative album Plight (The Spiraling of Winter Ghosts). Watanabe particularly was drawn to the subtitle, The Spiraling of Winter Ghosts, due to its beautifully poetic nature. The line serves as the inspiration for the collection’s video, and is the driving force behind the entire collection. 

For the collection itself, Watanabe repurposed motorcycle jackets, bomber jackets, and wool check jackets. Large patchwork leather pieces come together to create dramatic dresses with a triangle silhouette. The belting detailing on motorcycle jackets are separated from their whole and reworked into a new jacket. Torn apart bomber jackets are restructured into wild dress-like jackets with elegant fur trims. All of the different textiles come together to create gorgeous multi-color patchwork gowns, ones that will definitely make a statement. Each piece heightens in drama, skill, and elegance as the collection progresses. 

Watanabe shows the grace and beauty of objects of the past, and reimagines them in fresh modern ways.