Fumito Ganryu was in a jubilant mood as he walked through his collection from the safety of an air-conditioned showroom on a baking hot summer’s morning in Tokyo. The 49-year-old former Comme staffer, who is originally from Fukuoka, had been dreaming of outdoor adventures, and this season built an expedition-ready wardrobe that would do Indiana Jones proud. Darting around the sunny showroom, he explained the collection thus: “I always think of adventuring in the summer. It reminds me of being a kid, and when the weather gets warmer I want to get out into the world.” (Ganryu recommends Nasu, in Tochigi, as a beautiful place to go hiking).
Standouts included the belted field jackets, pocket-festooned button-ups, and mesh-backed military jackets, which were shown alongside unfussy graphic T-shirts, double-zip hoodies, and quick-drying shorts. A terry cloth cape, which the designer called a “changing poncho,” had been devised to make getting changed outdoors much easier and more dignified (no more awkward wiggling under a towel at the beach). It will no doubt please surfers, campers, and festival goers alike. This came alongside a toweled trench coat that was as comfortable and cozy as a bathrobe but with peak lapels and a side tie that nudged it just enough in the direction of formality to be acceptable in public.
A collaboration with Full Count (one of the Osaka 5, the pioneering gold-standard brands of Japanese denim), grounded the collection with some robust selvedge jeans and jackets. The designer added asymmetric twists to the patterns of jeans so that they were intentionally tilted, and gathered the back seam of jackets which brought a sense of levity to the dense fabric.
Outdoorsy fashion has been done to death in menswear over the past few years, but here Ganryu made it feel fresh, fun, and genuinely useful. The designer had never heard of the internet slang term “touch grass,” but it was nonetheless the sentiment at the heart of this collection. You wanted to put it all on and embark on an adventure of your own, mosquito net poncho at the ready.
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