Harunobu Murata spent most of his twenties in Europe, where he worked at Jil Sander under Lucie and Luke Meier. He founded his eponymous brand in Milan in 2018 before relocating back to his native Japan, bringing with him a sense of learned European elegance that you rarely see on the Tokyo schedule.
His fall show took place under the chandeliers at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa, a neo-baroque venue in Shinagawa that he chose because it recalled the Parisian salons where Dior’s Marc Bohan presented his clothes in the 1960s. He named the collection “Women Then” after pictures taken by the American photographer Jerry Schatzberg, which depicted paragons of 20th century female elegance (Nico, Catherine Deneuve, Edie Sedgwick). Still, the collection was no misty-eyed retrospective, but a selection of loose suits and cleanly contemporary coats and evening dresses that managed to retain a sense of unstuffy youthful sophistication that feels right for the moment—a bit like Bohan’s work did at the time.
Murata is clearly a perfectionist—his time at Jil Sander taught him how to make minimalism feel emotionally appealing—but the collection’s best looks came from the wilder flourishes he allowed himself. The most effective pieces were the slouchy monochrome suits embellished with vertical slashes of glittering Swarovski fringing that looked like streaks of light.
For all the latest fasion News Click Here
