“Good morning, I wish I could fly, nevermind.”
That was the name of Shinya Kozuka’s fall collection; it is a name that captures the endearingly melancholic mood of the brand, which feels stronger every season.
Tonight’s show took place in a large underground hall near the bus station in Shinjuku, and afterwards Kozuka came out cradling a sculpture of a Humboldt penguin. He was wearing penguin themed socks and a T-shirt with a drawing of a penguin on it and the caption “I wish I could fly” scribbled underneath. He bought the T-shirt for $20 on the resale site Mercari last spring and it set him on a creative journey that informed the collection. “Somehow I started projecting myself onto the idea of a penguin. And penguins can’t fly, you know?” he said. A collection dedicated to the flightless bird was born.
The models slowly paced through the hall to Quruli’s tune “Good Morning.” Kozuka’s penguins appeared as abstract shapes on fuzzy intarsia sweaters, or more clearly in tonal shades of blue on coats and suits or embellished with beads on navy quilted jackets. Yves Klein Blue has been a recurring touchpoint for Kozuka, and this time he submitted to it fully, narrowing everything down to a midwinter dawn palette of blue, black, white, and gray. The restraint allowed more space to appreciate the sensitivity of his clothes, which in the past haven’t always matched the sensitivity of his mind. The textures of the blue corduroy and velvet next to flashes of arctic-white fur added depth, while the knits, balloon pants, and caps scrawled with Kozuka’s musings (“I am so stuffed,” “the crescent moon,” and “the bus terminal in the early morning”) brought the poeticism.
The blue feathers that decorated the hair and faces of the models lent the show a vaguely ecclesiastical air; the humble penguin imagined as an archangel. It was Kozuka’s take on an ugly duckling story, except the message wasn’t of a latent transformation into a regal swan, and instead told of being enough just as you are. Even if we can’t fly, there’s beauty in just plodding along.
