Setchu is organizing its first male fashion show in Milan

Six months ago, when Satoshi Kuwata made his debut on the international scene with Setchu in Florence, he swore that it would be his last live parade. This Friday, in Milan on Friday, he opened the last season of male fashion shows.

As with his beginnings, the Japanese creator went to fishing for inspiration. This time, it is not in the Pacific, but near the Victoria falls, in Zimbabwe, where the discovery of remarkable craftsmen using straw was at the origin of this spectacular collection.

Presented in a centenary workshop in Milan, the mixed parade opened up to a slender young woman dressed in an oversized man shirt, with sleeves worthy of a kimono. She was followed by an Asian model, an idol of the morning, dressed in giant shiny white cotton pants that hung at the waist. Note for the attention of all fashionistas: elephantic pants is again an essential element of the male wardrobe.

Kuwata has played brilliantly with a series of colonial patterns – safari jackets or rangers coats – cutting them and untangling them. In a sense, the greatest novelty in this collection is that female models were even better dressed than male models in the setchu male cups.

One of them, dressed in a khaki outfit reminiscent of that of Grace Kelly in the classic of John Ford, Mogambo, was completely divine, her pace being enhanced by a triplet of bags of straw she held in her right hand. She was followed by a young woman with jet hair dressed in a white-tutinated mini cocktail dress, wrapped in a braided basket in the savage.

“This is a new facet of setchu. My friends put pressure on me so that I present again. But what attracted me is all I could express, even with a small budget. The goal is always to create something emotional,” said Satoshi, born in Japan.

Kuwata is one of the great creators of fashion images, and his vision of an elegant African in a narrow blazer, white t-shirt and dhoti blue dhoti midnight was of discreet elegance, especially on this Milanese Friday where temperatures climbed up to 38 degrees Celsius.

“I like the fun, but timeless and with another joy, functionality,” he explained in his way Sibylline.

Trained at Huntsman and Davies & Son – the latter being the oldest tailor in Savile Row – Satoshi is an excellent bosses cutter, a skill that few of his contemporaries will ever reach. But this season, he insisted that he wanted to do sculpture, and not just sewing.

“The Victoria Falls are one of the best destinations for fishing tiger fish. I met this tribe, the Batonga, and their way of braiding baskets, which is very different from that of other countries. The construction is therefore random, and that is what I wanted in this collection – random organic forms,” ​​insisted Satoshi, laureate of the LVMH 2023 price.