JUNYA WATANABE

Born in Fukushima in 1961 to a mother who ran a small made-to-order clothing shop, Junya Watanabe graduated from Bunka Fashion College in 1984 and joined Comme des Garçons as a patternmaker under Rei Kawakubo the same year. One of the most technically gifted and most private designers to emerge from the CDG universe: his interviews can be counted on one pair of hands, and for years he declined the customary bow at the end of his shows. He rose from pattern cutter to chief designer of CDG tricot in 1987, then CDG HOMME, before Kawakubo gave him a line under his own name in 1992, with a Paris debut the following year. His work is built on an obsessive mastery of pattern-making, an instinct for technologically advanced fabrics, and a method of deconstruction that treats tailoring as raw material to be taken apart and reassembled. He has cited Pierre Cardin and Issey Miyake as the designers who first drew him to fashion. His studio still operates inside the Comme des Garçons headquarters in Tokyo.

The brand works across distinct lines: JUNYA WATANABE COMME des GARÇONS (1992, womenswear; the care label carried the Comme des Garçons signature until AW2021), JUNYA WATANABE MAN COMME des GARÇONS (2001, menswear, where workwear, military, and patchwork converge, with ongoing collaborations with heritage and sportswear houses including Levi's, Carhartt, and Mackintosh), JUNYA WATANABE MAN PINK (2002, men's designs translated into feminine silhouettes with smaller, more fitted sizing), eYe JUNYA WATANABE MAN (2005, collaborative sub-line in a broader, more casual register).