UNDERCOVER and cinema: when fashion tells stories
A piece of clothing can tell a story. It can embody tension, prolong a film, or bring an image to life. For some designers, fashion goes beyond the silhouette to become a narrative. Jun Takahashi is one of them. Since the birth of UNDERCOVER In 1993, his work blurs the lines between couture and chaos, between visual art and textile storytelling.
For him, cinema isn't a reference: it's a language. His collections don't cite films. They extend them, transform them, translate them into fabrics. The body becomes screen, the cut becomes montage, the garment becomes memory. And when Takahashi pays homage to Akira Kurosawa, it's a whole swath of Japanese cinema that comes to inhabit his pieces.
Throne of Blood: A Woven Tribute to Akira Kurosawa
One of the most striking expressions of this approach is UNDERCOVER 's Fall/Winter 2022 collection, designed as a complete homage to Kumonosu-jō (蜘蛛巣城) — The Castle in the Spider Webs — Kurosawa's seminal 1957 film.
This masterful adaptation of Macbeth, set in a foggy and haunted medieval Japan, blends tragic fate, restrained violence, and prophetic visions. Washizu, played by Toshiro Mifune, brings madness and loneliness to the screen with rare intensity.
Jun Takahashi draws on this atmosphere to design a series of pieces with powerful visual codes:
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A red and green illustration inspired by a cliff scene from the film,
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The title "THRONE OF BLOOD" printed on the back,
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The Japanese characters 蜘蛛巣城 embroidered in red on the canvas,
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An embroidered samurai patch on the left sleeve.
Each element acts like a fragment of film. This collector's trench coat becomes a cinematic object worn next to the skin, a visual homage coupled with a narrative gesture.
UNDERCOVER : editing as a stylistic principle
The reference to cinema is not an isolated case in the universe of UNDERCOVER . It is a recurring creative principle.
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2003: the SCAB collection, deconstructed, violent, post-apocalyptic, draws on horror films, punk, and visual chaos.
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Collaboration with Stanley Kubrick: Takahashi obtains the rights to work on A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey, reinterpreted via t-shirts, sweatshirts and hybrid visuals.
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Integrated visuals: Lynch, Tarkovsky, Godard and De Palma appear, like quotes slipped into a textile storyboard.
Each season, the styling is constructed like a montage: like a filmmaker, Takahashi juxtaposes images, codes, and tensions. The garment becomes the stage, the body the narrative medium.
A fashion to read as much as to wear
Wearing an UNDERCOVER piece isn't just about getting dressed. It's about stepping into a movie. It's about embodying a role. It's about bringing an image to life in the real world.
Every detail tells a story: the embroidery is a subtitle, the cut a dramatic tension, the pattern a metaphor. Fashion becomes a form of visual writing.
It is this narrative, critical, intellectual, and sensory approach that we choose to promote at KIZUNA PARIS. Because it bridges the gap between disciplines. Because it resonates with our vision of demanding fashion, full of meaning and culture.
A trench coat, a film, a manifesto
The flagship piece of this collection—the Kurosawa tribute trench coat—encapsulates all of this. It is at once collectible, visual, cultural, and narrative. It embodies what a garment can be when it tells a story.
A bond is created between the viewer and the wearer. A bond between two arts. A bond between imaginations.
And sometimes, one link can tell a whole story.
Discover the UNDERCOVER collection here .
