Karlheinz Weinberger’s documentary record of mid-century Swiss youth doing their utmost to dress like Americans was a powerful influence at Mihara Yasuhiro’s debut London show today. The relocated-from-Paris Japanese designer chose a faded bowling alley as his venue; “King Creole” and other in-his-pomp Elvis numbers made up the preamble soundtrack; and when they came out, the models, male and female, used the lanes as their runway.The closing look’s oversize cowboy belt, horseshoe pendant, and bandana ties were a very literal acknowledgment of the DIY USA style of the teenagers Weinberger discovered, as were the bowling shirts, hand-daubed denim, and a pair of beautiful rivet-seamed oversize jackets. But for this fictional Americana-obsessed youth tribe, christened “No Club Lone Wolf,” Yasuhiro incorporated more contemporarily fundamental items of Rebel Youth attire, too. Long nylon rain jackets and souvenir bombers were bisected by zippers as outsized as that buckle. Hoodies were punctured or patched with DIY emblems.

Yasuhiro very literally explored the line of symmetry between different generations’ urge to stamp their own imprint on the American archetype by dividing pieces straight down the middle: one pair of pants’ right leg was wide raw denim, while it’s left was a cargo pocket chino. Above this two-part trouser, a silk bowling shirt was fused to a long-hemmed flannel check work shirt. A denim swing skirt and lace-hemmed slip dresses fused with bowling shirts or souvenir jackets were among the womenswear highlights in a collection whose rigorous fabrication was matched by its imaginative richness.LONDON, United Kingdom — The designer hive mind is a strange and wonderful thing. Within hours of each other, Japanese wunderkind Miharayasuhiro, showing for the first time in London, and Stuart Vevers, creative director for Coach, showed collections that celebrated “rebel youth”. Both mentioned biker culture and James Dean, both featured fabulous hand-painted leather jackets and both included some archetypal bad girls (Mihara’s in black lace-trimmed slipdresses, Vever’s in biker boyfriend leathers) in their menswear mix.

Maybe the synchronicity was inevitable. Mihara and Vevers are looking at Americana from the outside (Vevers is from South Yorkshire) and one story that’s always seemed really seductive to outsiders is the pop-cultural rush of teen rebellion, celebrated to great effect by Hollywood, which has effectively been America’s ambassador to the world.hoodie rayman Vevers even revisited the iconic red windbreaker of the first American teenager: James Dean. hoodies wholesale mumbaiMihara added another layer by taking inspiration from Karlheinz Weinberger’s photos of Swiss kids dressing like American kids in the 1950s and 1960s. hoodie tokobagus(And that book was actually called Rebel Youth.)milwaukee heated hoodie operation

Conceptual points of contact aside, both collections brought out the best in their creators. doernbecher hoodieMihara loves a hybrid. wtaps hoodie saleHere, there were trousers with one baggy leg and one narrow, cuffed leg, or a checked flannel shirt and a silk bowling shirt sutured together — a jean jacket that morphed into a trench coat, or a hoodie that did the same thing.bathing ape hoodie ebay Mihara’s Frankenstein effect occasionally sounds a little contrived, but what made the clothes work is that they looked like they’d lived a real life before they reached the catwalk. They weren’t remotely precious. They could even be read as ingenious responses to hard times, incentives to make the most of what you’ve got. Not just the hybrids, but the artfully laddered knits, the hoodie with the holes, the handpainted “little devil”, personalising a biker jacket with cheerful defiance.

Vevers worked with artist Gary Baseman again on his customised paint jobs. They were as funny and dark as ever (Kate Moss wasted no time snaffling herself one of the spooky happy face totes backstage). The designer effectively tricked out classics (ruched seams on a khaki bomber, a handful of leather fringing on a parka), but it was his palette of red, white and black – rock’n’roll greaser colours – that gave the collection its irresistible rush of Gothic drama. Next time a costumier is dressing teen vampires for a movie, Vevers has all the lost boy looks. He considered college boys and cowboys too, but, with the backdrop evoking the atmos of a small desert town on the skids, (The Last Picture Show, in fact) these young men were also born to raise hell. Still, who can resist a bad boy? We check over 450 retailers daily and we last saw this product for £534 at FarFetch. Black cotton coated zipped hoodie from Mihara Yasuhiro. Top image: Silver Apples’ Simeon Coxe live (1968)

Japanese designer Mihara Yasuhiro is known for dizzying concepts and cut and paste aesthetic. His collections often feature hybridised streetwear silhouettes that collage unlikely design elements with distressed and shredded textiles. Last season featured layered trousers with sleeves sewn onto them, hand painted jeans and deconstructed cut-out hoodies. For FW17 the designer has decided to have a quieter moment, not only as a means to strip back his practice but also as a commentary on the vast overload of today’s Information Age. His mission is to find clarity and concentration amid the noise, here reflecting on the process ahead of his show. “We live in an age of information overload, it’s perceived that having access to all this information is an advantage but I think it’s a trick.” “FW17 is about simplicity. We live in an age of information overload, it’s perceived that having access to all this information is an advantage but I think it’s a trick.

I find it mentally exhausting and difficult to distinguish what influences my ideas and whether they are shaped by the intrusion of outside sources. My new philosophy is to take a closer look at a single tree rather than the entire forest. I know this seems abstract, but it’s how I approached the collection and I feel that the simplest ideas are often the strongest. It’s about focusing deeply on one idea. In terms of the clothes, I have used new methods for pattern cutting, textiles and detail work – however, these new design elements are technical rather than aesthetic. For the shoes this season, I decided to design the sole by hand using clay and without the aid of computer software, which took a very long time! Recently I have been listening to experimental music, such as progressive rock and electro. I appreciate the likes of King Crimson, CAN, and Silver Apples and even tried making songs by myself, with a synthesiser and sequencer. I like electronic remixes of jazz and pop by artists such as Lotus and Knxwledge.