Beautiful Disorder: Jun Takahashi and the Romance of Undercover
Jun Takahashi’s Undercover is a punk label that reads novels. Its clothes borrow the vocabulary of punk and pair it with dolls, anatomy and the films of Stanley Kubrick; the effect is of disorder with a story behind it. That mix, of rough materials and tender subjects, is what the title of this essay calls beautiful disorder, a phrase we use as a reading and not as the label’s own. The dates, as it happens, are themselves slightly disordered, and we set out where accounts disagree.
A designer from Kiryu
Jun Takahashi was born on 21 September 1969 in Kiryu, Gunma, a textile town whose workshops embroidered the first sukajan; the history is in Kiryu and Sukajan. The Metropolitan Museum and the Fashion Institute of Technology both give the 1969 birth year. His friend Hiroshi Fujiwara and he collected Seditionaries together, the Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren shop, and the punk taste of the pieces is inherited from that collecting.
The founding date
The year Undercover began is disputed. The Metropolitan Museum, Tokyo fashion week and the Tokyo Opera City exhibition record say 1990. SSENSE reports that Takahashi himself cannot quite recall whether it was 1989 or 1990. Wikipedia and Business of Fashion say 1993, and one account places it while he was still a student at Bunka, before 1991. The first runway show was for autumn/winter 1994. We give the range.
Nowhere
In 1993 Takahashi and Nigo opened a shop in Ura-Harajuku called Nowhere, which closed in 2000 (Wikipedia says the company store opened in 1995). The shop was the shared home of the two labels, Undercover and A Bathing Ape. Nigo’s story is in Play as Power.
Paris and the long collections
Rei Kawakubo urged Takahashi to show in Paris, and his first Paris show, ‘Scab’, was for spring/summer 2003, held in October 2002. Later collections are the reference points of the archive: Paper Doll (autumn/winter 2003), Arts and Crafts (autumn/winter 2005), Guruguru (autumn/winter 2006) and Anatomicouture (autumn/winter 2013), shown at the Sorbonne.
Lines, partners and Kubrick
- Undercoverism is a secondary line that borrows from the main collection, according to a 2009 preview, and also the name of the brand’s website.
- Gyakusou, the running line with Nike, began in October 2010.
- Uniqlo UU was announced in July 2011 and debuted in 2012.
- Valentino produced a capsule for autumn/winter 2019.
- Kubrick. Takahashi calls his films a lasting inspiration, and the autumn/winter 2019 collection drew on A Clockwork Orange.
Reading a piece
Undercover garments are dated by season and by graphic; the label itself rewards close reading of the lining and the inside tape. Collectors chase the Paris-era runway seasons, the Nowhere-era Ura-Harajuku pieces and the cult graphics. Take flat measurements, and see our Designer Archives guide for condition.
Why Japan
Undercover began in Harajuku, and many of its first customers kept their pieces. Tokyo therefore remains a rich place to find examples of the first decade.
In the archive now
Continue reading
- mastermind JAPAN: Dark Symbols
- The Pop Cool-ture Timeline
- Rei Kawakubo: Against Clothing
- Encyclopedia entry · The Fashionista Bible
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Index terms: undercover jun takahashi · undercover founding year · nowhere harajuku · undercover scab · undercover guruguru · undercover anatomicouture · gyakusou · uniqlo uu · undercover kubrick