If you go down to the woods today…
Creating fantasy in fashion that feels wearable is hard work, but for Khoki it comes naturally. For their second proper runway show (the first was two years ago), the Khoki team transformed a vast, disused hall on the 13th level of a Tokyo office building into a forest, covering its floor with rustling mountains of brown autumn leaves. As hundreds of show goers queued in the darkness to the sound of hooting owls playing over the speakers, it felt as if we were all being led deep into the misty woods. When the lights came on and the show began, a live accordionist, flautist, cellist, violinist, and violist played a dissonant score that reflected the fantastical energy of the collection.
Khoki’s charm is in the unexpected medley of things thrown together, and with each season the collective’s identity becomes more confident. This time, patches of white broderie anglaise were sewn into faded flannel shirts or spilled out of the collar into a ruff, while lace covered the surface of neckties and T-shirts like vines climbing a castle wall. Workwear jackets that nodded to Carhartt and pearl-studded Patagonia-esque fleeces looked at home in the makeshift woodland setting, as did the excellent down jackets covered in cross-stitch unicorns, foxes, and cherry blossom trees. Sweetly strange but, for the most part, grounded in reality—the lace-embroidered hoodies, billowy tailoring, and barrel leg jeans will bring a dab of wearable magic to Khoki fans’ wardrobes come fall.
After the show, Koki Abe explained that he had intended to bring his hometown into the room, and the childhood memories he had of growing up surrounded by the forest. It took 600 bags of leaves to create the effect, collected from Abe’s hometown in Yamanashi. “The forest at night was the scariest thing in the world,” he said. “I initially wanted to share that scary, eerie vibe, but as the show went on I realized I wanted everyone to go home with the feeling that the forest is a mysterious, fun, beautiful place.” It was pure Teddy Bears’ Picnic, a yearning for a simpler time in a simpler place that for 10 minutes gave the Tokyo fashion crowd some welcome respite from real life.
The semi-anonymous team—made up of a band of creatives that share their ideas each season—has made Khoki one of better young brands in Japan right now. Its wizardry lies in the remarkable childlike purity they bring to their creative approach, in a way that feels immune to the vagaries of the industry, and anchored by a palpable talent for good old-fashioned craft and clothes making. If you build it they will come, and Khoki’s fairytale castle is open for business.
