So this might be Undercover’s last resort collection as a fully independent label. Currently 80% owned by founder Jun Takahashi and 20% owned by his younger brother and business partner Hiroshi, the brand is approaching a major structural change. Human Made Corporation, the company founded by Nigo, has signed a non-binding agreement to acquire Undercover, with a 100%share purchase agreement targeted for September 2026 with full transfer planned for February 2027.
Doubtless the Takahashi brothers will continue to work in and around the 1990-founded label for at least several years. And doubtless Human Made will be a benevolent and possibly positively transformative partner. But control is control; should the deal go through, it will mark a fundamental shift in the nature of Undercover’s creative gravity.
This collection seemed focused on cute peripheries. Garments were edged with lace, piped with cat prints, or veiled beneath sheer panels that softened their outlines without entirely obscuring them. A brown V-neck dress was framed at the sleeve and hem by bands of navy, while oversized T-shirts, boxy shirting, and cropped jackets were interrupted by translucent layers of gauze. There were mannish shirts elongated into tunics, easy wide shorts and trousers, and a series of apparently plain pieces whose quietness was complicated by aprons, slips, bibs, and loose overlays.
Many pieces seemed imagined as sly sites of impact between some of femininity’s culturally imposed tropes. White shirts were worn under corset-like black panels or split at the side to reveal pleated underlayers. Gingham, denim, and sailor-ish ribbon ties added further sweetness, but Takahashi kept souring it with surprising proportions and twists of detail. It was a classically Undercover operation.
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