Spring 2010 was all about the letter ‘M’ for Giuliano Fujiwara. Characteristically Japanese, but showing in Milan, with Masataka Matsumura at the helm as creative director, the collection shown on Sunday evening was inspired by a mix of militaristic and mountaineer motifs with individual looks being masculine and predominantly monochromatic. The collection showcased an eclectic blend of pieces that were wearable, yet cutting-edge, both in silhouette and material (painted, light denims, for instance), that affirmed, to a degree, the familiar Fujiwara style: Japanese starkness and structure met with an Italian sense of workmanship. But the Giuliano Fujiwara label has always had a clinical cleanliness about it, sometimes at the expense of charisma, and Matsumura has done his best to adorn this collection with some emotion, embellishing clean lines (and those jackets with the signature one-button stance) with braces, straps and wired necklaces of oddly-shaped prisms that are sure to be a popular item. The silhouettes are broken up by undergarments of mesh and the over-sized billowing trousers designed by Matsumura go against the anti-slouch policy we’ve come to expect from Fujiwara. The palette, however, benefits from an injection of day-glo brights in coral red and medium blue, and helps furnish a more colourful visual experience than what the last two seasons have put forward. Overall, despite obvious influences from mountaineering and the military, Giuliano Fujiwara’s spring 2010 collection is not so much about adventure as it is about a new framework aimed at dislodging Japanese orthodoxy.
