Odaiba is a manmade island that hugs the south coast of Tokyo, lit up by vast offices, apartment blocks and warehouses whose reflections glitter in the inky waters of Tokyo Bay. In the summer it is a popular date hotspot with illuminations and summer firework festivals, but in the chill of February it takes on the altogether bleaker feel of an industrial no man’s land.
It was this latter vibe that Meanswhile channeled for its fall show, for which it summoned Tokyo’s fashion crowd to an Odaiba skate park that was originally built for the 2020 Olympics. Guests were each handed silver life blankets for warmth, gathering around the rim of the skate park and shivering like foil-wrapped turkeys under the clear night sky.
Helmed by Naohiro Fujisaki, a pensive designer in his 30s who is never without his spectacles and black bucket hat, the brand is now in its 10th year and is known for uber-practical, industrial-looking gorpcore. Fujisaki cut his teeth at White Mountaineering, and makes clothing for outdoorsy minded guys (and sometimes girls) who are too cool for Arc’teryx but still want their jackets full of hidden functionalities to nerd out over.
Fujisaki’s idea this time was to show that clothes can assume the role of shelter and protection in the absence of buildings. The designer spends his time between the city and the mountains, and so aims to create clothes that can move seamlessly through both settings. Though the concrete rim of the skate park wasn’t exactly comfortable seating—“I can’t feel my backside!” trilled a nearby fashion editor in velvet trousers—it served Fujisaki’s concept well. Spotlights on the models transformed the concrete valleys of the skate park into a lunar landscape, and drone cameras buzzed around the models as they walked, adding to the general sci-fi ambiance.
The clothes were mostly as you’d expect: hardware-laden fishing vests, cargo pants and backpacks in a space-age palette, but with plenty of interesting details to pick out if you looked close enough. Some elements that struck the balance between practical, interesting and stylish: fleeces with storm shields at the back, insulating skirts layered over trousers, and long fuzzy arm warmers pulled over hooded nylon jackets or canvas coats. The brand also debuted a collaboration with The North Face, showing backpacks and jackets in various shades of monochrome—some with the adjustable zig-zagging straps at the neck that Meanswhile has made its signature. Most innovative of all were Fujisaki’s latest iteration of kuchofuku—down jackets with in-built air-conditioning systems, which he explained could cool down the body at the click of a button (handy for commuter train crushes in the winter, sweaty mountain hikes and everything in-between).
Fujisaki’s futuristically minded, gorpy clothes are a good example of how the trend for outdoor gear has endured for so long in menswear: clothing that exists in pure utilitarian service of the wearer, made with such attention to detail, keeps you comfortable and looks good while doing so. In more ways than one, this show was a reminder of that. It was just about worth the freezing backside.
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