Taro Horiuchi’s second collection for Kolor showed that the designer clearly has his sea legs.
He’s quickly settled into the role, balancing understanding of the house’s codes with a sense of restraint.
The show unfolded as a journey with plenty of nautical references — an apt staging as Horiuchi’s described his time thus far as a “new voyage.”
The opening looks featured the heaviness and protection of gray tweeds and wool suiting against stormy weather, with a bit of an Edwardian bent of ticking-stripes and exposed stitching that felt borrowed from workwear and evoked a harsh life at sea. His references to the classic “Moby Dick” and the recent black-and-white film “The Lighthouse,” starring Robert Pattinson were evident here.
Soon, the palette brightened and the silhouettes relaxed. A mutton-sleeved puffer created a perfect bridge between historical shape and contemporary materials.
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The shift mirrored Horiuchi’s personal narrative of fear and curiosity coexisting at an exciting moment of transition. “When you go to new places or try to do new things, it’s scary, but at the same time, it’s interesting and curious,” he said. He framed the collection as a study of pushing through uncertainty and adversity.
One current fear Horiuchi mentioned was how fast society is changing with the use of AI — a technology he used to create the 1940s jazz-sounding song that welcomed the audience.
On the runway, clever peplums referenced buoy belts; sailing sheet ropes tied around accessories, and waistcoats and capes were refreshed with new materials, such as sport jersey and pops of color.
Notably, what appeared to be complex layering was often just a single garment, he said, an approach that reinforced Kolor’s long-standing house codes of mix-and-match constructions.
That restraint worked to his advantage. By refining Kolor’s house codes without trying to replicate his predecessor’s sometimes more eccentric work, he delivered a collection that felt both assured and fresh.
Horiuchi hit exactly the right balance for his sophomore collection, without going overboard.