Fashion has been in a post-pandemic moment for more than a year now. The Milan season in June 2021 featured the first live men’s shows since January 2020 but only now is the calendar back in full swing mostly for the return of the bigger Japanese names. Junichi Abe with his label Kolor has not been in Paris for nearly three years and yesterday he brought his sophisticated fashion formula of hybrid fashion to the Palais de Tokyo in full force. Working with veteran Parisienne Camille Bidault Waddington as stylist and bringing his studio from Tokyo to Paris, he emphatically claimed his turf of innovative clothes in primary colors and intelligent pattern making as one of the best brands from Nippon. Abe is a force in Japan where he also distributes a secondary line called kolor BEACON in the countries’ biggest department stores and he holds a big corner in the influential Dover Street Market in Ginza. This is the beauty of Paris Fashion Week, it attracts the best and brightest fashion talents from around the world.

The core of Kolor?

Abe is always obsessed with little details and this time he focused on the collar. Most tops featured a double collar, which starts off on one side and ends as a single collar on the other. This takes particular pattern cutting prowess. ACHTUNG visited Abe in his Tokyo studio in late May where he does pre-show fittings for all the garments in his studio to attain this precision. His overall look of British post-Dandy meets technical athlete gear has become a signature.

Kolor colors?

Abe is known for his deft use of bold colors like orange, yellow, green and blue which he manages to bring together often in a single garment like the opening men’s look which featured a windbreaker coat with the Irish flag on the cuff. It becomes more and more evident that he is in love with Henri Matisse and his color hues. Another stand out was a shiny Yves Klein blue parka for men.