If this Tokyo Fashion Week has been sparser and more subdued than usual (many designers have been showing off schedule), Khoki certainly brought some buzz. The brand, which is garnering a cult following in the menswear space, held its third runway show with the support of Rakuten’s ByR initiative.
Set in a huge concrete warehouse in Tokyo Bay, the show space featured replicas of rooms from Koki Abe’s family home in Yamanashi, decorated with household items and bric-a-brac—some real, some just props—from the designer’s childhood: antiques, toys, house slippers lined up at the entrance, a T-shirt crumpled in a laundry basket. The exterior wall was a replica of the flower shop that Abe’s mother runs back home. “The whole production team visited , and we recreated the layout, like how things were arranged on the tables, exactly as they were,” he said.
The collection featured familiar touchpoints from previous seasons scattered throughout, interpreted in subtle new ways: knee-length shorts came with laser cut hems, gray pinstripe tailoring bulked out at the shoulders, and relaxed jeans had holes through which peeked patches of leopard print and broderie anglaise. Geometric prints that formerly appeared on shirts were now on a paneled wrap skirt combined with brown leather. A criticism of Khoki in the past has been that the brand’s overall direction has felt vague or hard to pin down, but as it builds on its design language each season, its position feels clearer.
There is commercial savvy here (the patchwork jackets in looks 10 and 19 will surely be best-sellers, and there was a notable effort to expand into womenswear), but Khoki’s real magnetism comes from the fact that the team members, who work as a collective, consistently manage to retain an element of fun and fantasy. See the anachronistic and androgynous flourishes, like the ruffled shirts, fitted corset jackets worn with velvet opera gloves, and a doublet-style camo-print garment complete with gold buttons and glittering trims.
“I’ve been collecting vintage stage costumes as a personal hobby, and I thought adding them would make the show more interesting and theatrical, and give it some spice,” said Abe. “So we put together looks that combined things like corsets, even though it’s menswear, and pieces inspired by military stage costumes.” Tights and catsuits were printed to give the impression of old-fashioned floral wallpaper (in one of the ‘rooms’ was a William Morris book), while a leather-collared workwear jacket featured an image of Disney’s Dumbo.
Maturing, but still deliciously naive and fun where it matters, Khoki reasserted itself as a serious one to watch, and the vibe afterwards was celebratory as everyone mingled. On the back of that jacket, beneath the famous flying elephant, were the words of encouragement spoken by Timothy Q. Mouse as Dumbo takes off: “You’re Makin’ History.”