I've always loved the look of metal band shirts (the fonts and graphics are so elaborate) but I'm old-school enough to think you actually have to be a fan to wear the shirt so I'm not going to be getting one anytime soon.
probably the band is new to a lot of the customers there. without any attachments, even the hard rock image might be consumed under the category of cute. more of the autonomy of the work and less of biographical info, original thoughts, meanings, or intentions. the advantage of object over authorship, and subject (the seer) put before object (the seen). the work can speak more free here. but this is only possible in your solitude.
but if the print is of any japanese band, they might hardly buy it there at junya watanabe while they could buy it somewhere else. because, for them, it is less of fashion than a souvenir item.
maybe it's a matter of distance. I have not worn anything with kanji /chinese characters, katakana, hiragana printed on it, since I wore a "海が好き" T shirt just for fun somewhere during the high school days. it's too close. to life. like jeans worn by miners in mines. it was when worn in the cities that made jeans a fashion item.
I had zero hesitation in wearing a helmut lang T with "reykjavik" on the chest.
also I wore a couple of madonna and child with two angels printed lang t-shirts in different colors.
japan is full of old customs with buddhism origin. but basically you would not see people wearing things with buddhistic prints. the minority who love both of these, domestic letters and buddhistic motif, used to be yakuza and motorcycle gangs. ( today's yakuza doesn't look like yakuza but blends in with the masses.)
and now it's yohji. for example, SS2002 for the buddhism season.
so when yohji does those things, they have this agonizing meaning of negating fashion by means of fashion.
the intention and circumstances might not be very clear outside of the country. but the work itself gets independent and you can take it freely then.
junyawatanabe ikebukuro and shibuya
pinterest