In an exciting high-low collaboration succeeding Jil Sander’s J+, Undercover have paired with the Japanese retailer Uniqlo to present a capsule collection for Spring Summer 2012. The first campaign images released this week reveal the designer Jun Takahashi’s vividly surreal aesthetic boldly fused with Uniqlo’s simplicity and accessibility.

“Clothing for families of today. It is the unity of UNIQLO’s high-quality, basic clothing and the UNDERCOVER line of street-influences, high-end fashion. It represents modern family style, and seeks to inspire the world from Tokyo.”

UU hits stores in 11 countries worldwide on March 16th, 2012.
Discover more on www.undercover.uniqlo.com

Photography: Katsuhide Morimoto
Art direction: Tetsuya Nagato
Styling: Toshio Takeda
Hair and Makeup: Katsuya Kamo
Set design: Enzo

“Happy New Year 2012. We are very grateful to you for the kindness you showed us last year. May the new year turn to be the happiest and the best for you. We look forward to your continued goodwill in the coming year. Thank you very much.” – The New Year wishes of Jun Takahashi and the UNDERCOVER team, direct from Tokyo, Japan.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 from UNDERCOVER on Vimeo.

Covering the floor of the Couvent des Cordeliers in a plush red carpet and watering his guests with champagne, Jun Takahashi offered a soft & inviting collection, filled with his expert handling of classical garments with a street sensibility. Our review of his Fall Winter 2011-12 runway return will be posted here shortly…

A BLOG contributor Filep Motwary speaks to A#4 curator Jun Takahashi just weeks before his first UNDERCOVER runway show in over three years.

*                          *                           *

INVESTIGATING UNDERCOVER

For a while now Jun Takahashi’s works moved me in a way that only a few other designers can. Last October, I was invited by chance to a very intimate party for the launching of some candles the Japanese hipster designer created for a well known establishment of scent in Paris, CIRE TRUDON. It was clearly an opportunity for me, to finally ask Jun for an interview. To my surprise his response was positive.
Jun Takahashi, is the creative force behind the cult label Undercover, has been a well-respected creative icon in his own country for more than fifteen years.

He was internationally fêted in 2006 after a triumphant fashion show, when he sent masked models down the runway with their faces shrouded in knitted, embroidered hoods. It was his way to voice an idea about hidden beauty. He has developed his imaginative and highly technical point of view, from a small shop co-owned by NIGO (of A Bathing Ape fame) and on to international praise, the runways of Paris, and, recently, one of his experiential fashion shows as the featured guest of the Pitti Uomo trade show.

Somewhere along the line, Takahashi picked up a passion for running which, along with his Tokyo-based running crew called *Gyakusou, caught the attention of athletic giant Nike. 

Garnering support early on from Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons was another coup for the young designer. Takahashi, at her urging, showed his first collection in Paris in 2002 with Kawakubo sitting on the front row, a very rare moment to be remembered.

*                          *                           *

Filep Motwary: What always impresses me is the fact that each of your collections does have a completely individual concept and result. From ultra glamorous refined chiffon and laces next you jump to a more casual approach and immediately after to a more refined architectural and structured silhouette. Could you please explain?

Jun Takahashi: My goal is to express what is happening in my head through art, mainly fashion-of course; there are times when I express myself through other forms of art as well – and I try to design from multiple directions by having different approaches and concepts. My selections are based on how fresh they appear to me.
Of course, it is true that I am constantly interested in various things. Therefore, when I rely on the flow of thoughts in my brain, creating art with many different themes , it seems as something that comes natural to me.

FM: It doesn’t worry you that your clients will be surprised or that you may lose some of them for not giving them a specific UNDERCOVER “outline” OR “signature” each time?

JT: Though I may not have an obvious signature item, it may be possible to find common qualities or feelings somewhere in each collection. That is what Undercover is about. But the common quality is nothing more than the feelings that make up Undercover’s outlook on the world and the universe.

FM: As a young designer you influenced a lot of young people back then with your “NOWHERE” store. How did it feel back then in the early 90’s?

JT: Because I started it haphazardly with Nigo, with whom I opened the store and at the time the movement was unexpected. But there is no question that I was extremely happy about it.

FM: How different is the youth culture of the 90’s compared to 2011?

JT: Because the Internet was not as widespread during the 90s, particularly in the early 90s, I think young people were more focused on collecting information than today.
It was a time when you had to make efforts to obtain what you wanted. I think the difference is that today’s young people lack of hunger.
We saw things with our own eyes, touched them, and felt them.
It was a non-virtual time back then.

FM: How difficult it was for you to conquer Paris as a Japanese designer?

JT: I have never been conscious about it. Who I am now is the result of pursuing what I like and believe. I realize that there is always a large risk, financial risk for example, in conducting business the way I do.

FM: How important was Rei Kawakubo’s support in your career?

JT: It meant a great deal to me. I was able to receive support from someone whom I respect. I feel very grateful.
 

The international fashion scene is always looking forward for your next collection.

FM: What is the ingredient in the philosophy of your collections that in a way won-over the crowds and the press?

JT: First of all, if people are looking forward to the next collection that is something that makes me really happy to know. Believe it or not, I have not participated in a fashion show for three long years.
Paris is also a place where people forget about you unless you participate in a fashion show.
The point that attracts attention every time… When you come right down to it, themes such as surprise and innovation, particularly humor and black jokes, are themes that only Undercover deals with, so that is what attracts attention.

FM: How important is the opinion of others in what you do?

JT: Extremely important. However, only opinions from people whom I trust. I listen to the opinions of people whom I trust as much as possible.

FM: Who is the UNDERCOVER customer? Could you please describe the man and woman of UNDERCOVER?

JT: Independent people who know themselves.
People who are headstrong.
People who cherish freedom.
People who enjoy humor.
People with morals.
Pacifists.
In addition to the above, people who are rebellious.

FM: Why has your brand become successful. What are the elements you offer and the customers can identify themselves with?

JT: I wonder if I am successful.I think it is because I have the belief that all people are equal. Of course, at my company I am the president and there is a hierarchical relationship, but basically everyone is equal. I think our customers understand that spirit.

FM: Do you have customers that have been following you loyally throughout the years?

JT: 
There are many. I rarely have the opportunity to directly interact with customers but I feel as if we have encountered each other by a fate-like destiny.

FM: Undercover is a very peculiar name for a brand. How did you choose it?

JT: I wanted a mysterious shadiness.

FM: What is the concept behind the UNDERMAN SS11 collection. Why the Sci-Fi approach?

JT: It’s an “homage” to the low-tech, underground special-effect superhero television shows that I was influenced by as a child in the 70s. They are hugely different from American superheroes such as Superman and Spiderman. 
Unlike the good versus evil-type theme of American superheroes, I added a spirit that good and evil all become one in the end.
It’s an even more peaceful ending isn’t it? I wanted to express that idea. It’s not really related to fashion, I suppose.

FM: Have you ever thought of releasing a film with your clothes. I would love to see something like the UNDERMAN SS11 in film…

JT: 
I’m very interested in films. In fact, I considered making a film about UNDERMAN, but I decided not to. Instead, we are planning to shoot a short documentary film on the journey to the fashion show in Paris that we will be participating in for the first time in three years.

FM: You work closely with Nike. What is the Gyakusou performance running collection about?

JT: As someone who runs on a daily basis, I want to design running wear that is suitable for running and unconventional at the same time.

FM: How did you become a marathon runner in the first place?

JT: It all started from jogging for health benefits. 
I have been slowly increasing the distance over two years.
I run 10 to 13 km every other day with two friends.

FM: How does tradition interfere in your collections and work generally?

JT: I believe tradition is at the core of my works.
I create a balance in the depth of the design by sometimes focusing on it from close-up and sometimes destroying it.

FM: What other projects are you involved in for 2011?

JT: A fashion show , a documentary focusing on the whole procedure before and during the show and finally I am publishing a picture book. There are many more projects, but I cannot tell you about them yet.

FM: You are also a photographer, you recently created some interesting candles as well as some beautiful dolls..How can someone work in parallel projects at the same time without necessarily linking one to the other?

JT: To be honest with you, it is really tough to conduct multiple projects simultaneously. Particularly, the collaboration with Nike requires a lot of time.
But because I choose to take part understanding the time commitment, I have no choice but to make it happen.
And not all my projects are linked with each other.

FM: How do you see fashion evolving in the next five years?

JT: 
I tried to imagine, but I don’t know.

FM: Who are the people you admire in the history of fashion? Who influenced you the most and why?

JT: Rei Kawakubo, Martin Margiela, Prada, Raf Simons.

FM: What are your morals Mr Takahashi?

JT: Discipline and common sense in day-to-day life. But I don’t know what that is (laughs).

Text by Filep Motwary, Athens.

*Note: *Gyakusou means “running in reverse” and refers to his crew’s propensity to run against traffic in Tokyo’s parks — it is also the name of the capsule collection he’s created for Nike Running.

With thanks to Hiromi Otsuka and Rene Habermacher.

P E A C E — & — L O V E— & —P E A C E

The buzz across the internet and on the streets of Tokyo’s Harajuku district has been building steadily. In October 2010, Nike and Jun Takahashi, founder and head designer of Japan’s coveted Undercover clothing label, will be releasing the first Nike x Undercover Gyakusou performance running collection.

Fusing cutting edge Nike running innovations and design and the trademark functionality of Takahashi’s Undercover, this is looking like a project with serious legs… Jun Takahashi’s dedication to his “less but better” design philosophy mirrors that of Nike founder Bill Bowerman’s passion for the athletic benefits of minimalism (Takahashi recently showed an Undercover collection completely inspired by another 20th-century functional design legend, Dieter Rams). This new Gyakusou design partnership amplifies levels of technical precision and intuitive function, delivering a modern perspective on running by urban runners.

Having started running two years ago, beginning with three to four runs a week, Takahashi soon found his distances increasing. “At the beginning I wasn’t as serious as I am now, but the more I ran, the more I came to enjoy it and I became increasingly focused. Now, I run 12 or 13km every other day. It’s kind of like meditation to me, but with an adrenaline kick too. Running actually allows me to balance these two opposites almost like a form of zen. Whenever I travel, I try and run there too. It’s become a very important part of life. I have to run.”

Taking its name from a small but highly dedicated group of Tokyo-based runners, who with Takahashi passionately run their city [the name Gyakusou comes from ‘gyaku’ meaning wrong way or reverse and ‘sou’ meaning ‘run or running’ - a reference to the group running counter-clockwise while the rest of Tokyo's runners run clockwise in the city's parks], the partnership draws upon a shared obsession for innovation, unique design and improving the performance of the athlete.

“To me as a designer,” says Takahashi, “style and functionality is crucial and when I started running, I looked very closely at the color and styling of products as well as their performance attributes and functionality. The more I ran, the more I thought about my perfect running product.

“I had a good existing relationship with Nike so we discussed working together on a performance running project. Nike has always created the most innovative running product and partnering together was an opportunity to create a collection that fuses my Undercover aesthetic with Nike’s innovations and our shared commitment to the future of running.”

The partnership has surely exceeded all early expectations. The Gyakusou collection translates Nike’s performance design language by expanding on core appeal with products that deliver lightweight, waterproof, breathable fabrics and innovative moisture management. Takahashi faced new challenges and opportunities: “with Undercover we’ve utilized high-tech fabrics, but through working alongside Nike I was able to harness cutting edge sporting innovations.”

Examples of Gyakusou breakthroughs? The Stretch Jacket’s laser cut, no sew construction, strategic seam placement and DriFIT sweat-off panels are a perfect demonstration of this streamlined rethink. A special watch window on the Fabric Mix Jacket, removable sleeves on the Zip Off Jacket and reversible headwear allow extra expression for the runner.

The Gyakusou Zoom Spider TT+ running shoe encapsulates Nike’s latest technologies in two unique makeups, with Lunarlite foam, reactive Zoom Air, Flywire support and distinctive reflective design elements.

Total articulation and storage solutions were paramount during the entire design process. Carrying day-to-day essentials in silence is an integral part of Takahashi’s needs as a runner, ensuring his run remains an almost sacred personal space where he can concentrate, unwind and continually achieve. Fabrics remain quiet, while keys and coins can be kept from contact – one of the designer’s main concerns.

“I was always using every pocket my pant had. Now with this pocket system, you can put things in with order while eradicating noise. I think that will help the regular runner.”

For a/w 2010, Nike and Takahashi wished to provide an alternative to traditional running neons and brights. The result sees subtle colors that Takahashi reveals “reflect a harmony with nature”, offset with reflective safety details. A recurring red trim, meanwhile, is inspired by the artery vein – a clear reminder that physical performance is the foundation to everything that is Gyakusou.

For Jun Takahashi the point of the run is clear. There Is No Finish Line.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14766332[/vimeo]

The following is an extended conversation between Dan Thawley of A Magazine and the artist Erik Madigan Heck, who is the Editor of Nomenus Quarterly. They discuss Heck’s working methods, his two most recent photographic series’ for Haider Ackermann and Undercover by Jun Takahashi, and his opinion on the state of fashion today.

In an exclusive collaboration, we offer Erik’s never-before-seen photographs from the upcoming Nomenus Quarterly #10, released online on September 1st, 2010.

(This interview and gallery is presented in two parts. Click here for the Haider Ackermann article)

*                          *                           *

An interview with Erik Madigan Heck, part I : UNDERCOVER

DT: It is interesting to hear you speak about your work. I’ve read some transcripts from two lectures you gave, one in New York and one in Sao Paulo where you talk about your working methods and how you approach fashion. You seem to discuss fashion in a more considered, and conceptual manner. Is that right? You don’t view your fashion images as simply commercial or traditionally editorial, but you talk about them almost as fine-art projects. Can you elaborate on this?

EMH: Yes, that is correct. When I was in graduate school at Parsons I was always grappling with how to make my fashion work fit into an art context, or at least expand the vocabulary used to discuss my fashion photographs, mostly because at the time graduate school was concerned with teaching you how to verbally contextualize your work alongside your contemporaries. For the most part my professors dismissed fashion and fashion photography as a cheapened artistic practice that really didn’t have any relevance to the art world. I disagreed considerably, granted I was in an MFA program, not a fashion program, but I always felt that fashion could be discussed and considered with the same amount of thought and social depth as art photography is discussed in journals like Artforum. And I still feel that in reality both are the exact same, even if the intentions for fashion and art images are different. For both types of photographs are a catalyst to discuss something larger, whether it’s a portrait of a woman by Katie Grannan hung in Chelsea, or a portrait of Guinevere in a fashion spread, you can speak about both images in relation to feminism or the current role of women if you choose to take the conversation there. There is nothing inherent in the Katie Grannan photograph that makes the discourse different. It’s just that the art world enjoys intellectual discussion more so than the fashion world at this particular moment in time. However I actually think there is a lot more interesting things happening in the underground fashion scene now then there is in any gallery I’ve stepped into in the last couple years, and I say that after spending a lot of time in galleries in this city. Just look at someone like Carol Christian Poell and what he has done with fashion…

DT: Where does your work fit in to this?

EMH: My work is always changing, but I suppose I am an advocate of more considerate fashion photography, or at least fashion photography that can engage viewers outside of the very small industry that we work in. We have to keep in mind how small our industry really is, and how boring it can be if we just stick to glossy skin with standard fashion poses in a studio. I consider each project I take on and each issue I curate of Nomenus Quarterly with an extreme amount of thought now as time goes on. I have become very much about trying to subtly intertwine my imagery with literal historically relevant information and research, partly because I feel a responsibility to my audience and to the fashion designers whose work I’m documenting. Each project is now about how do I approach this particular fashion designer’s collection ontologically, rather than seasonally, and consciously negating what everyone else is doing around me. I have become very aware of how history affects the images that are being made now, and I try to bring attention to this by referencing specific moments in time with my work. I attempt to use the clothing to talk about things other than just the clothing- things that may be in the back of our minds that are ultimately more important than just a shirt or pair of pants.

But I would like to draw a distinction, because often time there is a misconception that my work is nostalgic, and it’s not about nostalgia at all. It’s definitely not about trying to make “old looking” images, its more complicated than that, and each project appears the way it does depends on a multitude of factors. For example the series I did this spring with Comme des Garcons was a very important project for me personally, because it was taking a brand we know very well and trying to make it face its own nationalistic identity. Comme des Garcons is the most iconic Japanese brand, but I’ve felt that it has always had an identity crisis in the sense that it desperately wants to be Western. It’s always photographed in a very Western manner, and its branding has always seemed a bit more British than Japanese in my opinion. So I thought I would reference the history of Japanese photography from the mid 19th century (when Dagguereotypes first made it to Japan) to create a time warp that most Westerners immediately associate with Japan as a nation. I wanted to make the most literal photographic references I could make in terms of recreating sets that were standard during the 1860s for Japanese portrait photography. We even flew in original objects and props from Japan to help with authenticity. I wanted people to be hit over the head with Comme des Garcons as being the most iconic and stereotypical brand to encapsulate Japan, by accessing the Japan that we all have seen in geography books: the bathing scenarios, the umbrellas, etc. I wanted Comme to be face to face with its history, and I felt the best way to reconcile this was by placing the current collection in this specific time capsule and see what happened. And I think it worked, it definitely put the images in a whole other world altogether- away from just fashion, and literally removed from photography’s inherent sense of depicting time as truth.

DT: That’s interesting that you talk about the altering or removing of time. That is a good tie in to the current project you just finished with another Japanese brand, Undercover by Jun Takahashi, which is a bit controversial. Can you explain the photographs and what you were trying to do with this project?

EMH: Certainly, like all projects the starting point was really studying Jun Takahashi’s oeuvre. I thought about what I could add to the conversation he began with Undercover some years ago. The most important thing I had to remind myself is that the history of Undercover as a brand lies in the street not in high fashion. Although he has crossed over here and there Undercover is considered to be higher end street fashion, especially with this current collection. For me its such an interesting brand because of this cross over from highbrow to street wear, mostly because the price is still extremely expensive. I immediately began thinking of what street culture means now, and specifically African-American street culture, being the origin for so many references in what we consider to be “street culture” that has made its way overseas. I thought, how I could dive into creating a series of images that can access some of the stereotypical psychological fears of the street, or touch upon some darker elements from the street that may or may not even exist anymore here in New York. Many would argue that street culture is dead. So I wanted to think about hip hop street culture as a romantic past notion and from the very stereotypical outsider or white upper class perspective.

I helps that I live in Harlem, the part of New York City that still has a stigma amongst most white middle and upper class people as being very dangerous because of its all black population. I’ve lived here for four years and have definitely watched south Harlem turn into an extension of the upper West side, that is to say, very safe and in the middle of gentrification. But when I tell people I live in Harlem they still kind of seem hesitant as if the projects are still burning, or teenagers are being shot dead in the streets, which I assure you is not the case. So I thought it would be interesting to create a series of photographs that depicted brutal murders in Harlem in the old newspaper style of documentary photographers like Weegee who almost strictly photographed murders throughout the 1940s and 50s. I wanted to give people a series of photographs that didn’t appear to be staged at first glance, but came across as real documents of violence. The series really became a personal comment on Harlem as a place now. Being the quintessential African American neighborhood for the US, I wanted to play up how the community is still perceived by white Americans in 2010. The truth is we might have voted for Obama, but many of us still wont cross 125th street at night out of fear that we’ll be harmed.

The danger with creating this series was that it’s very easy to immediately dismiss the images as naïve, or made purely for shock value. But I wanted to challenge people to really think about what they are looking at, because that’s what street culture does at its core and that’s what Jun Takahashi does with Undercover. The street as a metaphor brings an energy and thought process to a more or less commercialized culture, until the mainstream eventually appropriates it and in turn makes it commercial. Which is what happened to hip hop in the mid 90s by white suburban kids like myself, and what hipsters have done to New York in the last 5-10 years. I used to listen to Wu-Tang Clan in math class, while going to a top-notch private school. Its funny how fast street culture expands through a society, from the origin to the suburbs…

DT: Is this really the role of fashion though? To discuss political and social issues, or is fashion really just about clothing and style, and you are choosing to bring it to another place for your own personal reasons? You studied political science before getting your MFA, can your background have something to do with this desire to stimulate the mind first?

EMH: I absolutely feel that it is the role of fashion to not just create luxury goods but to help educate the populace through alternative thought, and I don’t think I am alone in sharing this opinion. Read any interview with Hussein Chalayan, or look at how LVMH is trying to attach itself to social institutions like the MoMA. My educational background undoubtedly comes forth into my image making, but I also think the fashion designers I choose to work with are also very overtly political in their work. Rei Kawakubo is arguably one of the most radical feminist designers we have seen since the 1980s, like Louis Bourgeois, altered the shape of the woman’s body. Ann Demeulemeester, who has become a dear friend of mine, is one of the smartest designers I have met by rejecting fashion altogether and creating her own insular world that is constantly evolving as our world does, but according to her own understanding of time. I think that we have reached a period where the element of money has become the central focus in fashion, and its very scary to me. Its scary to pick up a fashion magazine today and see a litany of thoughtless spreads created by photographers and stylists who aren’t truly realizing the power they have to make something thought provoking, and instead are imitating their surroundings. I think people should want to alter the norm, or want to make a statement of some sort, even if it is as simple as attempting to create the most beautiful image ever made- which in it self can be a very powerful political statement. Instead we discuss who is paying for the spread, and how to appease an advertiser who wants the same look as their competitor. And that is very frustrating.

DT: To play the devil’s advocate though, isn’t that what fashion is at its core? We’re in the business of selling a product.

EMH: Yes we are, and in Art it’s also about selling a product too. A painting or a sculpture are also commercial products, but there are ways to create that can stimulate minds and conversation, and there are ways to do it where we are just filling pages with catalog imagery and the latter is too often what we are settling with. There is inarguably an establishment of photographers and art directors accounting for 90 percent of what we consume visually in fashion today, we all know their names- they are celebrities. From them we see the same aesthetic formulas time after time: furthering this sort of inverted hipster-utopian American Apparel culture. They are essentially sending the message to emerging photographers that in order to be successful you have to find your recognizable formula and never stray from it. Just look at the obvious examples of Terry Richardson or Juergen Teller, I feel silly even bringing them up because its so mind numbing. It assumes people are stupid and by feeding them mindless snap shot imagery we can all be like the person in the photograph, or are on an equal playing field with the photographer. To take it one step further, the current mindset assumes photography itself is pretentious unless it’s immediately accessible with a point and shoot and a flash. My argument is that we are now perpetuating a culture where standards have become inverted, where serious artists are now looked at as pretentious, or worse, not even discussed. Instead street artists from the LES are put on the front of magazines around the world, and they aren’t Basquiat- or anywhere close. How is someone like Dash Snow immortalized by the fashion world, instead of an actual great artist like Gerhard Richter or Anselm Kiefer who have proven themselves over decades? Lastly, I don’t think it’s enough for those photographers who we do see publishing constantly in the magazines to become comfortable and formulaic in repeating the same image over and over until we can’t take it anymore. I speak for everyone when I say that if I see another 30 page Juergen Teller spread that looks exactly like everything else he has ever produced, I’m going to throw the towel in. The thing is I actually like some of his work. Juergen has produced some iconic images, but at this point you wonder if he is capable of doing anything interesting, or if we’re forever burdened with the same image….

(To read part II, click here.)

Nomenus Quarterly #10 is launched online on September 1st, 2010.
http://www.nomenusquarterly.com

*                          *                           *

In today’s world of highly-polished and mass-produced retail concepts, it is rare to find a gem that echoes a designer and a brand’s identity without seeming manufactured, diluted and a little fake. Whether it is due to factors like an odd location far from a designer’s origins and inspiration, or an ‘off’ interpretation by an architect, many stores are uninviting shells – tempting only with a cold, shiny glamour that lacks emotion.

Jun Takahashi’s UNDERCOVER boutique in Aoyama, Tokyo is a shining example of an individual, customised space filled with intriguing artifacts and interior design that evokes his off-kilter aesthetic and innate sense of the extraordinary. Spanning two floors, he separates mens and womenswear into two distinct levels that divine the disparate sense of his collections – the ground level and its light-globe covered ceiling housing the more elaborate womens ready-to-wear, and the grungy basement floor with the more subdued mens streetwear. The collections themselves play almost second string to the vibrant backdrop, yet nevertheless their rich textural fabrics and warm, dark colour palette play beautifully off the more industrial surrounds.

You cannot turn your head in the space without noticing another discrete example of Jun’s handiwork, whether it is the installation of a Braun radio from industrial designer Dieter Rams (the inspiration for Spring Summer 2010), or a wooden Eames’ chair with its backrest replaced by the anarchist’s ‘A’. From floor to ceiling customers are confronted with exposed concrete with steel frames, barely hiding networks of electrical cables and fluorescent lighting. Fitting rooms belong in a military medical hospital, with thick white curtains and a single wire coat hanger positioned above a simple wooden chair. Photography from the most recent campaign hangs above the dark wooden staircase and in a catalogue sitting on the harshly-lit worktable-cum-sideboard (above).

In effect Takahashi has created a tranquil space, both trademarked yet sparse with overt signatures and logos. Essentially, one must be initiated to know the relevance of each of Jun’s curios, yet without prior knowledge any interested party may enjoy the organised chaos of his world.

Above: the light-globe ceiling of the UNDERCOVER store in Aoyama, Tokyo.

Above: A BRAUN radio designed by Dieter Rams, the inspiration for UNDERCOVER Spring Summer 2010.

Above: A photograph from the UNDERCOVER Fall Winter 2010 campaign in the store.

Above: A sitting area and fitting room below the staircase, on the menswear level.

Above: The discrete front door, revealing the exposed structural work inside the store.

Above: An Eames chair customised by Jun Takahashi.

Above: The ground level womenswear floor of the store.

Jun Takahashi has always maintained the role of the peaceful warrior, fighting the creative battle for his own particular vein of anti-fashion – an anarchistic mix of subversive punk references, hidden details and fantastical mythologies.
His honest, innocent approach to his craft has attracted the attention and the cooperation of many interesting creative souls over the years, including Rei Kawakubo and Patti Smith.

Patti first encountered Jun’s work through photographer Yoshie Tominaga, who has worked extensively with the two artists on separate projects. Via a series of letters, all of which are published in Tominaga’s book “The Shepherd”, Patti and Jun conversed over the possibility of collaboration, and arrived at the following poem Neo Boy. For Jun’s Fall Winter 2004 Undercover show “but beautiful”, Patti recorded her own recital of this special poem, originally published as the 8th poem within “Radio Ethiopia”, the 1st section of her 1978 book “Babel”. It was played as the soundtrack of the show in March 2004.

The poem captures an esoteric mood, telling the tale of the spirit Neo Boy through a surrealist, existential stream of consciousness. Birth, death and the broad reality of sensual human experiences and modern society are deconstructed within her short stanzas, the raw power of freedom, escapism and creation represented by Neo Boy’s animalistic qualities, his bird mask and his ‘magic touch’.

An excerpt from “Neo Boy” by Patti Smith

“neo boy w/ skin shimmer. yellow rubber tissue fingers forming crazy mountains. etched in pink fluorescent shadows flubber shadow. paper flowers nodding rhyming bearning (sic) red teeth.
neo boy grins and leaps into the sea pommaded (sic) with blood.
the sticky kisses. the wet and shining lips of the neo boy slobbering on his master. the innocent worship. the exotic mathematics. the music of neo boy popping electric exclamation points from wet tongue of neo boy on commack spleen rack sliding home free like oiled baseball thanks to oil droplets on the feathers of the neo boy craning his neck to aim sink and eat (not devour) the moon.
goo-rain la lune caught like a gas bubble in the belly of neo-boy dreaming of remarkable voyages accursed ships frozen in dish shapes and his crazy disgrace as he exists in a field of jazz.

neo boy, neo boy, neo boy, neo boy melts in jelly machine,
the whole thing is how he can change the scene or be a changeling, transformation is relative says neo boy.
tropical plants shiver, what can you say about habitat that hasn’t been said before?
greedy children lap up radioactive jewels
spit in the dunes by these so-called know-it-alls.
soon the gleaming bones of innocents will be scattering the sands and some enterprising old soul will gather them up in an old leather bag and sell them to a contact.
some kinda contact. some kinda roman woman or some kinda bird head.
Someone will come, a beautiful though thoughtless, childless shrew who will rearrange the bones with all the discreet adoration of a Japanese boy adjusting his weapon, neo boy.
he dons, he dons his bird head, he dons his bird face mask and plucks up a sharp metal star and cuts a new scene from a sheet of copper, what can you say about habitat that hasn’t been said again?
we take these pieces of paper, these precious sheets, we bend them into birds and we fill the illiterate…”

Above image: Patti Smith photographed by Annie Liebovitz.

For the fourth installment of The Early Days, we present the first show of Jun Takahashi’s UNDERCOVER in Paris, held in October 2002. As Jun’s very first time showing in Paris, the event was an exciting and experimental experience for the whole UNDERCOVER team, flying across the world to showcase their efforts on an international level. Paris was a whole new ballgame, far removed from the smaller Tokyo scene, where they had been working since 1995.

Jun was certainly not without support in Paris, with his wife Riko and young ones along for the ride, as well as his staff, hair artist Katsuya Kamo, and photographer Yoshie Tominaga (who captured the images here). Takahashi’s seven-month-old daughter La-La even featured on the show’s soundtrack, her little voice carrying over the jangly rock-n-roll soundtrack.

For the show invitation, Jun asked Yoshie to photograph a woman’s knees decorated with fake scab makeup, to correspond to the theme that would be the show’s title, “SCAB”. The clothes themselves translated this as a fanciful punk patchwork, influenced by streetwear and historical costume with military cargo details and intricate frayed panelling on denim. Light fabrics were ripped and threaded around arms like skeletons of sleeves, flowing as wooden-beaded capes or even floor-length transparent burqa veils trimmed with coins and bells. Studs embellished slouchy cream boots, and Katsuya Kamo lay delicate ropes of pearls across the models faces – plaited into their hair like precious, spidery curtains.

As a Paris debut “SCAB” was a great success, garnering newsprint for its unique brand of Tokyo punk style, rendered with such precision for a cosmopolitan global audience – who came unprepared for the  aggressive new boy in town. There is nothing like a grand entrance, and “SCAB” provided this in true UNDERCOVER style – with bells on every seat, to welcome in the revolution.

Above: Jun Takahashi relaxing after a fitting for “SCAB”, Spring Summer 2002.

Above: The show venue for “SCAB”.

Above: Katsuya Kamo’s hair designs for “SCAB”.

Above: Katsuya Kamo’s hair designs for “SCAB”.

Above: Backstage before the show at “SCAB”.

Above: Patchwork trousers from the “SCAB” show.

Above: A still from the “SCAB” show.

Above: A still from the “SCAB” show.

Above: A still from the “SCAB” show.

Above: The finale of the “SCAB” show.

Above: A sachet with a small bell was given to each guest on their seat at the “SCAB” show.

All images from “The Shepherd – a documentary from Paris 2002-2006″

© 2008 Yoshie Tominaga / UNDERCOVER All rights reserved.

For the scenography of the exhibition, Fukai will work with Sou Fujimoto, one of a new generation of Japanese architects working closely with the natural world, white space and abstract forms.

Please follow for more updates of this exciting event!

Japanese Fashion 1981 – 2011
15 October 2010 – 6 February 2011 
Barbican Art Gallery