5 Japanese Designers in Their 20s That Are Going to Be the Next Big Three
Text Kaijiro Masuda（Fashion Journalist）
Kaijiro Masuda is a fashion journalist who covered more than 250 fashion shows a year and has been watching thousands of exhibitions over the years. For this irregular series of columns, he picks out the Japanese brands that you should know now. In this five-part series, he looks at Japanese brands in their twenties that are going to be the next big three. This time we'll be looking at MASU.
A young researcher who arranges the archives at will
I've only seen MASU with my own eyes at multi-label stores and at their first show, but never been to their exhibitions. Even so, when I’m asked to give a name of young brands to look out for, I have always mentioned MASU in the past few years. The main reasons are the newness of the references from vintage clothing, its high quality yet affordable prices, and the fact that the brand seems to have its own unique character something similar that I felt from BED j.w. FORD. I was also intrigued by the fact that the designner used to work at LAILA, one of the world's largest collections of designer vintage clothing (archive).
Designer Shinpei Goto first became interested in vintage clothing from the hippie heyday of the late 60s and early 70s craft leather. Major brands included EASTWEST, NORTH BEACH LETHER and GANDALF, and many of those rare pieces were stocked at LAILA, the vintage store in Omotesando that he would later join. He began working part-time at LAILA while still a student at Bunka Fashion College, and was in charge of planning and production for the brand SEVEN BY SEVEN after graduating, which was launched from the company LAILA. The designer of SEVEN BY SEVEN, Junya Kawakami, was originally a famous second-hand clothing buyer, and LAILA was, needless to say, a treasure trove of archives. During his four years at LAILA, he has seen lots of high quality and wide range of clothing that could not be found in any other vintage store. Like Doi of RequaL≡, Goto is undoubtedly a "young archive monster", and the concept behind MASU is as follows.
Exploring the advantages and disadvantages of structured clothing, it focuses on adapting the garment to the modern world while respecting its form and tradition.
The concept is "MASU / PRODUCT", which refers to a new mass-produced product created by redefining an element with a clear conservative ideas.
The brand name is derived from "-masu", which is used in Japanese honorifics. Propose items and styles that never lose their value for people who love clothes like the word "masu", which is used most often in everyday life in Japan but never loses its value.
MASU's clothes have a "basic pattern", which is quite rare for a young designer. He carefully examines the advantages and disadvantages of basic styles such as flight jacket, tailored jacket and bbiker jacket, and replaces them with modern basics. From there, the designer makes his own adjustments. This is the essence of MASU. The theme for S/S 2022 is "silver lining in the cloud”, which was inspired by the question to himself "when was the last time I looked forward to the future more?”, and the collection is a nod to his youth, when he was obsessed with 1970s' fashion. Looking at the lookbook images, the collection is more cohesive than in the first show, with a better expression of early impulses, and less genderless but more powerful.
I feel a bit ashamed to give advice at a stage before going to the exhibition, but I think the challenge for the brand is to build a "MASU style". Although the products are highly finished, it seems that MASU has not yet created an overwhelming individuality that makes it easy to recognize as MASU. That's what's different from other Japanese seniors in their 30s who have already experienced Paris and Milan fashion week. It seems that there are no shows planned for this season, so I would like to take a closer look at the clothes at the exhibition for the first time.
Designer Profile
Shinpei Goto, born in Aichi prefecture in 1992, graduated from Bunka Fashion College in 2014 and joined the vintage store LAILA. As a founding member of the company's SEVEN by SEVEN brand, he was involved in planning and production from A/W 2015 until S/S 2018 season. After leaving the company, he became the designer of MASU since A/W 2018 and rebranded the brand, which held its first runway show in A/W 2021 season.
