Kozaburo Akasaka’s collections often have a rich spiritual backstory that merges Japanese and American cultures. This season, the saga takes on a new dimension; the collection was shot half in Tokyo and half in New York, with the pictures superimposed into an imagined intergalactic landscape. The space-desert setting becomes a new third place in Kozaburo lore: It’s neither East nor West, earthly nor heavenly... Maybe it’s the world we are re-emerging into post-COVID? Maybe it’s just a better, groovier place in general; the trippy landscape also features as a print on roomy poly separates.
This Friday, Akasaka will create his own groovy, happier place with a rave in Brooklyn. Over video chat, he explains he hopes it rages ’til the sun rises. The collection he’s created for spring 2022 has a raver’s urgency: surefooted, essential silhouettes with a pragmatic bent. His sub-label Wave of Sand introduces new boxy tees with a ripple graphic and expands upon its vocabulary of functional trousers, wide in the thigh and tight in the waist. Phantom Ranch Market, Akasaka’s upcycling endeavor, transforms old Schott leather jackets into new hybridized pieces, two jackets cut diagonally from shoulder to hem or in a wave pattern across the yoke and stapled together. A collaboration with Wrangler, the original cowboy jean, brings Akasaka’s world to a new demographic without losing any of the designer’s edge. Jeans are high-rise with slice-top pockets and a pintuck along the back to create a gentle, sensual flare.
The most exciting developments this season, though, are in the suiting. Formalwear was never a Kozaburo signature, but his oversize blazer with hanging strings, worn with curved trousers, makes a compelling case for post-pandemic tailoring. The jacket had an interior strap to be styled either loose or cinched. Coordinating pants have exterior pockets that hang around the legs, sort of like Japanese armor. Of all the suits we’ve seen this season so far, Akasaka’s do the best at mixing reality and ingenuity. Ready for a brave new world, indeed.
