“Fashion and society are both changing rapidly, that’s why I just try to go at my own pace and stay true to myself,” wrote Daisuke Obana in a recent email exchange. As is so often the case, while following his own path the designer managed to concurrently tap into something universal. This season it’s a sweet and hazy feeling of displacement, and things moving in circles—or as the show notes put it, “breaking down the established and reconstructing it to create new values.”
For fall, Obana put a unique spin on all things British. An expert in American vintage, which he sold for many years, Obana decided to study its roots in the “the Sceptred Isle.” It was his first time back there since 2018 and the designer found it much changed. “To be honest, as a country, the UK has passed its maturity stage, making it harder for new things to emerge,” he reported. “But even in that environment, I was able to see cultural movements that came from small, independent communities rather than the mainstream. That kind of organic evolution resonated with me and left a strong impression.”
Checks were a more material takeaway. One of those developed for N.Hoolywood’s collection is in a warm orange, others are bold but slightly off, and were designed to have a lived-in quality. Trad menswear fabrics are a theme of the season and Obana focused on his “all-time favorite pattern”—Glen plaid. Raw-edge tailoring was informed by visits to vintage shops where Obana said he saw lots of rough-hewn, remade garments that had an unstudied nonchalance he wanted to recreate. This construction detail dovetails nicely with the designer’s stated intent “to take the traditional British mood and disrupt it—not with punk spirit, but with something strange and soft.”
Helping to conjure that “strange and soft” mood are the visuals, which rotate around a carousel hand-crafted by Peter Petz in 1886. The accompanying soundtrack is full of cuts and glitches; combined, these sensory elements evoke a state in between dream and waking where time is somehow suspended and things feel just out of reach—sort of like the brass ring children try to grasp as they sit astride candy-colored horses sculpted in poses of perpetual motion. The prop choice was based on Obana’s discovery that traveling fun fairs rather than permanent amusement parks are the norm in Great Britain. It’s interesting that the designer would land on this theme at a time when the Luna Luna, “the art amusement park,” is on view in New York, and when there’s a circus-like undercurrent to the news cycle. What is happening in the world now will most affect the upcoming generations. The vibe here, however, is otherworldly and connected to a sense of youth as something tender, magical, and broody. N.Hoolywood is a safe space for dreamers.
