Once you’ve been in enterprise so long as Daisuke Obana has—N.Hoolywood simply marked 25 years—style will probably come again round to the place you might be. Requested to share what he’s choosing up on his fine-tuned radar, the designer wrote: “I’ve been sensing a transformative shift in developments throughout the Asian market…. It feels just like the mindset is shifting towards easier, extra sensible gadgets. In a means, it’s beginning to really feel extra aligned with what we do.”
The practicality and performance of N.Hoolywood TPES is seen at first look, however nothing Obana does is strictly “easy.” His data of army gear is prodigious and every TPES season he does a deep dive into a selected facet of fight/outwear gear. For spring the main focus is on mountaineers; he and his workforce spent hours documentary footage of climbing expeditions, which set the course of the styling.
The casting lent a documentary facet to the lookbook. Such physique range is uncommon on the runway and in style imagery, and it was refreshing to see the garments in motion. The concept, wrote Obana, was to underline “the connection between physicality and work, I suppose, in addition to the ingredient of being multinational.”
Including curiosity to acquainted silhouettes was the palette, which included white and a dusty plum along with olive drab and black. There are numerous small particulars to soak up, from the location of a label to the surprising look of a pocket on a sleeveless prime. This providing additionally comprises 5 collaborative ventures, which aren’t taken on frivolously; they permit TPES to supply merchandise exterior of their experience which can be in sync with the theme and aesthetics of a given assortment. In partnership with Wacoal Males, Obana and his workforce devised “a groundbreaking [undergarment] design that’s sizeless, reversible (back and front), and seamless.” Army-inspired towels are made from a particular bamboo-infused yarn with Japanese firm Hippopotamus; a watch strap was developed with Tokyo-based classic army watch specialists Curious Curio. With American firm DannerAn, stated Obana, he “created a low-cut model of the military-approved ‘Tachyon’ collection;” and continued an ongoing partnership with British army purveyors, ArkAir. Evidently it takes a village to climb a mountain.