Opening the main Tokyo Fashion Week schedule this season, Yoshio Kubo is a veteran of Japan’s fashion scene known for his mix of entertainment-heavy runways and sporty, streetwise clothing. With his wife and two daughters now based in Los Angeles and Kubo mostly in Tokyo, the charmingly rugged 52-year-old found himself with more free time and caught the running bug. Now, he’s making clothing for runners. Or at least clothes for people who don’t like to stand still.
Titled Natural Born Nomads, this season’s collection was presented on a vast white runway in the center of which was a huge ger (a traditional Mongolian tent). A heated soundtrack thumped as the models circled the ger, their eyes smudged with warpaint and dressed in clothes made for movement: utility vests, lapel-less blazers, and nylon parkas that were cropped, cinched tightly at the waist, or billowed out into capes. Paisley bandanas hung out from under shorts, and there were camo-like textiles on sweatpants, some fuzzy, others appearing to peel away. On the feet were Saucony sneakers (Kubo was also appointed the creative director of Saucony last year), alongside a few waist packs and thigh-hugging cycling shorts from the sports brand.
At the finale, when the lights went down, the room filled with blacklight to reveal fluorescent footprints on the catwalk, and Kubo came out for his bow, his face glowing with a UV skull that disappeared when the lights came back on.
It was a hodgepodge of references that Kubo, who is a frequent traveler, hoped would transcend cultural and geographical boundaries. “Visiting various places exposes you to different ethnic groups, each with their own unique rules and ways of dressing, which I find fascinating,” he said afterwards. “The clothing worn in a region is shaped by that specific land, and the more I see things like that, the more I want to create something myself.” The result was an intricate mix of contemporary clothes; though complex, you could see some of these pieces being worn by the communities of increasingly style-conscious runners proliferating through every major city right now. You’d want to cheer them on, too. Run, Kubo, run!
