Last year, Arashi Yanagawa made his Berlin debut through the \u201cBerlin Contemporary\u201d funding program. This season, he returns to an audience that has clearly embraced his work. The shift in mood is just as apparent: less metalhead, more sleek. For spring 2027, the Japanese designer\u2014who founded his label in 2003\u2014turned to androgyny. Like many designers blurring gendered conventions, Yanagawa began with traditionally masculine silhouettes, using his precise tailoring as the collection’s foundation. That starting point felt especially resonant given his previous career as a professional boxer, a discipline still steeped in ideals of masculinity.<\/p>\n
Inspired by Modern Lovers (1990), photographer Bettina Rheims\u2019s portrait series exploring the performance and plurality of gender identities, Yanagawa subtly disrupted his signature tailoring\u2014blazers and suits cut long or cropped\u2014with conventionally feminine gestures: lace peeking from sleeves, mesh tulle, crushed velvet, glossy patent finishes, and shorts designed to resemble skirts. Altercasting completed the picture with models that looked lifted straight from Rheims\u2019s photographs, slicked-back hair included.<\/p>\n
Yanagawa translated the ease of Rheims\u2019s portraits directly onto the runway. Rather than overturning familiar archetypes, he shifted them just enough. A beige blouson with a peplum briefly flirted with feminine codes before razor-sharp trousers pull the look back into masculine territory. Even the black boots concealed their slender heels until the wearer started walking. \u201cI wanted to explore the space between masculinity and femininity. For example, we created men\u2019s shoes with a softly rounded toe and slender heels that remain almost invisible at first glance. You only really notice them as the exaggerated flare of the trousers shifts and reveals them while walking,\u201d Yanagawa explained after the show.<\/p>\n
Not every look was quite so restrained. A double-breasted blazer layered over a python-print shirt was wrapped with straps that cinched the waist, crossed the chest, and disappeared into the jacket. The motif reappeared on several shirts, framing a classically tied necktie. For Yanagawa, it was deeply personal: \u201cThe art of shibari is part of my culture. In Japanese, the word has a double meaning. It refers both to binding with rope and to restriction or constraint\u2014or, in my work, to the structural constraints inherent in tailoring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fetishistic undertones\u2014Yanagawa also cited Nancy Grossman\u2019s bondage drawings as a reference\u2014surfaced in leather waist corsets that visually extended voluminous leather trousers upward, as well as in body-hugging lace tops worn by the female models. It\u2019s evident that, despite incorporating womenswear into his practice in 2010, Yanagawa\u2019s greatest strength\u2014and the clear focus of this season\u2014remains menswear. It\u2019s that unwavering sense of integrity that makes Yanagawa\u2019s presence such a welcome one at Berlin Fashion Week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, Arashi Yanagawa made his Berlin debut through the \u201cBerlin Contemporary\u201d funding program. This season, he returns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,40542,8394,40544,40543],"class_list":["post-49295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-berlin-spring-2027","tag-john-lawrence-sullivan","tag-runway","tag-runway_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}