Watanabe’s most ostentatious collection yet, FUNKY SS27 is a camp saga tracing his quest to satiate his appetite for BLING. Predictability is never a permanent fixture in Junya Watanabe’s universe. As he continues to deconstruct his approach to fashion, permutations of Watanabe’s archetypes evolve with the times. Recalling the New Romantic kids sporting chains and pearls against deconstructed tailoring in his Spring 2023 collection, alongside the curvilinear Airtex mesh sportswear of Spring 2013, Spring 2027 feels like an ironic exercise in excess, taunting its viewers’ sense of taste.
Call it Watanabe’s own simulacrum, amplified. How far can we remix the codes of excess before they take on their own meaning?
That process unfolded through Watanabe’s greatest hits. Reconstructed trench coats were cut loose from their military and utilitarian roots and reconfigured into ponchos, apron dresses, and boleros in looks thirty-two through thirty-six). It’s been thirty-three years since he first showed in Paris, but Watanabe still shows us new ways of reworking a suit, offering a masterclass in the evolution of tailoring. To illustrate, look thirty presented a tuxedo reconfigured into a dress suspended from one shoulder, paired with studded silver gloves.
Quintessential cuirass couture and corsetry were explored through rigid, protruding bodices in looks seven and nine. Biker and punk dressing remained recognizable through classic leather jackets, reworked so that their functional hardware became part of the garments’ ornament. That same approach extended to utility, with assemblage turning found objects into fully functional accessories. Take look sixteen, for example. A glossy red tubular framework surrounds the upper body, projecting beyond the shoulders and elbows like an industrial exoskeleton. Its bicycle-like components formed a sculptural cage, which the model gripped at either side. It was paired with an asymmetrical, densely ornamented dress.
You can read these transformations as his way of turning familiar garments into unexpected accessories through reduction or exaggeration, with the fitted bodysuit providing their foundation. The audience also came alive when Ciara walked out, her baby bump visible in a bodysuit by the Japanese sportswear brand CW-X. Her fitted plum catsuit with hot-pink contour panels was anchored by a wide black belt slung diagonally across the hips and glossy red ankle boots. The centerpiece was a wearable chandelier: a crystal-covered, crown-like helmet suspending long strands of silver chain and clear faceted beads. The structure recalled a crinoline suspended from the head, surrounding the body without concealing it.
The show’s finale brought this excess back into the world of formality. Bodysuits made way for Watanabe-san’s spectacular dresses, bejeweled and layered with the same elements that dominated the collection. The final look even ventured into bridalwear, but retained echoes of the bling bling cap from the previous menswear SS27 show.
Excess is becoming the norm for a new generation of fashion consumers. The threshold of normalcy keeps shifting, and Watanabe’s camp feels almost natural in a culture hungry for the next sparkly thing, the next viral moment. FUNKY feeds that hunger by making familiar forms strange again. My appetite for sensation was more than satisfied.
