JUNYA WATANABE

JUNYA WATANABE

JUNYA WATANABE presents on the official calendar as one of the most technically innovative protégés to emerge from Comme des Garçons. A graduate of Tokyo’s Bunka Fashion College, Watanabe joined Comme des Garçons and became a direct protégé of Rei Kawakubo, eventually being given his own label under the CDG umbrella — Watanabe began as a pattern-cutter for the brand’s knitwear line before rising to head his own eponymous collection in 1992, a rare structure that has allowed him significant creative independence while remaining tied to Kawakubo’s broader design philosophy. 

Watanabe’s work is distinguished by an obsessive, almost architectural approach to garment construction, frequently reworking a single technical concept — origami-inspired folding, laser-cut patterning, unconventional fabric bonding — across an entire collection with the rigor of a research project. He has built an extensive collaboration history with technical and outdoor brands including The North Face, Levi’s, and Nike, using those partnerships to push utilitarian, performance-driven fabrics into genuinely conceptual runway territory, bridging high fashion and function in ways few other designers attempt with the same technical seriousness. 

For S/S 2027, JUNYA WATANABE presents on the official Paris calendar continuing over three decades of treating each collection as a focused technical study — proof that Comme des Garçons’ broader design philosophy can generate entirely distinct, independently coherent creative voices under its own roof.

For more fashion week news, click here.