admin A lonely boy from a small town, escaping an unhappy home life to try and make it in the big city—a familiar story for many and one that Yohei Ohno certainly recognizes. For spring, the 36-year-old designer plunged into his own version of this age-old tale, with a bittersweet collection that drew on a difficult childhood. He called it New Town, New Car.
Earlier this year Ohno returned to his hometown in Aichi prefecture (a place he left over 15 years ago) to research sporty fabrics, but was blindsided by a family photo album that contained pictures of him smiling as a child. From there, his ideas for the season began to unfold. “I have never made a personal collection before, and my family is my weak point. I thought that if I delved too deeply into them, my heart would be torn out,” he said candidly after the show.
The introspective approach is new for Ohno, who in the past has focused on external artistic influences. He’s a particular fan of architects, geometric artists, and technology, all of which lends his womenswear a robotic, vintage sci-fi feel that has a touch of J.G. Ballard-ish perversion to it. Darkness has hitherto bubbled somewhere under the surface of his work, but this season he drove into it head-on. “In previous collections I was inspired by new things from the outside, but this time I felt that I had to face the pain of my own traumatic experiences, in order to create a more personal collection,” he said.
The soul-searching gave Ohno’s work a new level of depth—and also a sense of humor. A white lace dress was adorned with what looked like fine blue feathers, but which in close-up turned out to be plastic price tag fasteners. Elsewhere, rainbow polka-dot trousers had been made with fabric inspired by LeSportsac bags—known as a stereotypically unfashionable (but practical) accessory popular among country bumpkins in Japan—while sports jerseys had been artfully warped to show skin, or pinned and draped into louche silhouettes.
The details were intentionally démodé, recalling the unglamorousness of provincial life while also turning an ironic lens on the contemporary trend for sportswear as fashion statement. “I don’t play sports, so I intentionally tried to express this unstylish image I have of sportswear,” he said. The curves and bright colors of schoolyard rugby balls inspired the exaggerated first looks, and the blurry memories of his dad’s car combined with a Tesla cybertruck inspired the last ones, a literal expression of the tension between memories of the past and dreams for the future.
The final two looks featured veils printed with vignettes of his family photographs, memories floating on the fabric. Ohno’s parents and older sister were present at the show, and tears were shed. Sometimes home is the hardest place to go.
