“I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me” is the Dylan Thomas quote that appeared in the invite to the runway show of the new Undercover collection for Spring / Summer 2020. Jun Takahashi’s idea seems clear: representing human nature in general (and male nature in particular) as switching of masks that in his new garments are translated as a series of eloquent symbols which are played almost on black on black. The colour range cannot afford many concessions when it comes to staging references like the one from Nosferatu (is there a greater metaphor for man as woman’s predator?) or Cindy Sherman (whose photographs were always a true mask ball). The deconstructed tailoring is the heart of a collection that plays with hybrid garments and with the contrast of fabrics to make up the eternally elegant vision of men’s fashion that Takahashi has always practised through Undercover.
UNDERCOVER S/S 2020, A MASK BALL
Nosferatu and Cindy Sherman are the two great references from which Jun Takahashi erects the iconography of his new Undercover collection, a true mask ball that talks about the fracturing of the new century’s male identity.
