Junya Watanabe x The North Face
“His whole thing this season was essentially a giant collage of collaborations absolutely certain to drive collectors crazy,” reported Sarah Mower for Comme des Garçon’s Junya Watanabe 2017FW collection. There were multiple collaborations, from Levi’s to The North Face, that made up this sophisticated normcore collection. In this golden age of designer collaborations, Watanabe has been incorporating collaborations for years, like before it was a must for cool brands.
The North Face was founded in 1968 from San Francisco and has helped endurance athletes and urban street kids survive harsh climates across the globe. The Watanabe x The North Face garments are heavy duty and bulky, almost like last winter’s Vetements x Canada Goose but with greater amount of details.
There are rivets, zip lines and stop buttons everywhere, the waterproof logo panels are cut out into smaller panels throughout a piece. Makes little sense at first but the padded shoulder straps that are built in jacket interiors give it away, Watanabe created his garments using The North Face’s durable Base Camp Duffle Bag series for his jackets and even shirts.
Overall, there are Watanabe-esque colour block panels, regular rise straight cut denim jeans and brown corduroy spread collar enforced in the 2017FW as it continues its ’cool & fashion but knows not to be a jerk’ menswear collections. To view the entire 2017FW Junya Watanabe collection, click here.
