On a damp Monday night, two balaclava-clad thugs rammed a white pickup truck through the wall of the Japanese National Stadium parking lot and stopped it in the middle of a runway as 900 guests watched in amazement.
It was Koji Kamiya’s debut show and it was a great way to make a first impression. The truck had a mountainous sound system strapped to the back that blasted moody ambient rock music, and the broken wall (which turned out to be Styrofoam) lay in pieces on the floor as Kamiya’s models came stomping out of the opening in threadbare clothing. denim, fluffy Cobain cardigans and sweaters and hoodies the color of toxic waste.
It was a great way to make a first impression. The 27-year-old designer, who cut his teeth under Mihara Yasuhiro and started his own label just a year ago, is a confident and hungry newcomer to the Tokyo menswear scene, as well as a showman. Midway through the show, a blizzard of fake snow was pumped into the air (which unfortunately did little to lessen the heat in the venue), hardening the collection’s dystopian edge, which felt like a renewed take on the war-core trend from 2018 – remember?
However, behind Kamiya’s sense of theater lies a real talent for fashion. The textures were a strong point: unique cable-knit sweaters, artfully worn knits, ribbed denim and satiny nylon pink sweatpants were all the result of a distinct knowledge of textiles, the latter of which was achieved through a lengthy dyeing process to achieve that smooth fade.
Kamiya had named the collection Nothing From Nothing, after the 1974 Billy Preston tune he had been listening to for the past season. “When I interpreted the lyrics for myself, I intuitively felt that if you don’t challenge anything, you won’t achieve anything. And I think that’s what’s missing in today’s world and especially in my generation,” he said. Don’t worry: Kamiya definitely has something.
