For their fourth outing since taking the reins at Engineered Garments, Kenta Miyamoto and Kunimasa Odagi moved on from last season’s rustic trip outdoors and, instead, had a feeling for “hippie style.” Looking into the brand’s extensive archive, Miyamoto noticed it was a subject the brand explored around a decade ago, and he thought it would be a good time to revisit it as a way to think about youth culture.
No, no tie-dye of bell bottoms here, but there were some subtle swirling psychedelic waves, some groovy block-print ikats, and some dashiki-like tunics with a bohemian spirit. But to say hippies inspired the collection is a bit of a misdirect—it was just a light touch device to get the creative wheels turning. There was much more breadth to the sprawling collection in the Paris showroom. It included, among other things, vivid madras camp shirts (sometimes patchworked into an effusive checkerboard), some seersucker fabric crafted from a spongy bathing-suit material, tapestry-like jacquards, and a cotton shirt printed with a loopy, curling motif.
The nice thing about Engineered Garments is that, since 1999 when it was founded, it has built out a framework of items—many based on old military references and updated with mischievous details veering on the downright eccentric—that mostly remain constant. It’s Miyamoto and Odagi’s job, then, to really dig into fabrics, obsessively finding new and interesting textiles to help add novelty to the shapes that have proven to be popular over the years. This season, they made small additions—a pair of shorts with a longer inseam for a baggier fit, a pullover collared top based loosely on a Ben Davis work shirt, a shirt adapted from an old medical dressing gown, a wraparound pleated apron skirt inspired by a kilt, and even a linen pajama shirt with piping and western front details. Miyamoto said one of his favorite fabrics was a hopsack used in the brand’s unlined, casual tailoring. And as for the accent color of the season, he noted it was a bright, traffic-stopping orange. “Not made because of the Knicks,” he said, with a smirk. “But it could be.”
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