This review has been updated on Jan. 21 at 6 p.m. CET.
While many are focused on wooing Gen Z and even Generation Alpha, it isn’t so for Yusuke Takahashi at CFCL.
“We don’t need to focus on new generations, we would like to make more timeless, more authentic styles with new technologies,” he told WWD on a call from Tokyo.
Steadily building out the CFCL men’s line, which he started to present separately a year ago, the designer had a hankering for the look and feel of natural materials, which needed to be finessed both in terms of texture and tones. That’s easier said than done when your signature material is recycled polester yarn, which tends to result in brash colors.
The result did not disappoint. In pursuit of what he deemed a more mature style, Takahashi leaned toward roomy, comfortable silhouettes in an attractively muted palette of winter neutrals with the odd flash of duck blue, turquoise or terracotta.
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Standouts included a heathered belted funnel-neck coat with off-center buttoning; fine crew neck sweaters and ribbed hoodies fit for layering; boxy overshirts with an asymmetric buttoned collar, and a chunky marled zippered cardigan that epitomized the neo-vintage angle Takahashi pursued.
If the CFCL man is maturing, so is the brand. This month, it is initiating a two-year factory project that will see its production capacity expand drastically.
The new plant, located in the Saitama prefecture just outside Tokyo, will house 46 knitting machines, including 42 able to produce full garments through 3D knitting. With a capacity that will reach nearly 65,000 of CFCL’s bestselling “Pottery” dresses, that’s plenty of room for growth, including for its nascent personalization program, open to women’s only styles — for now.