Once again, Japanese creativity caught the eye in Paris, on the fourth day of menswear fashion week shows. ‌Notably through the designers of the Junya Watanabe Man, Maison Mihara Yasuhiro and Comme des Garçons Homme Plus collections. All three designers succeeded in transforming their creative vocabulary for the Fall/Winter 2025-26, showcasing inventive and perfectly realised collections.

‌Junya Watanabe set the scene on Friday morning. He is second to none in reshuffling the pack and reinterpreting his label’s menswear wardrobe every season, making even the most functional and ordinary of garments look utterly desirable. ‌This season, he took his audience to deep America, where his models could easily blend in without being noticed.

With caps (or cowboy hats) screwed on faces framed by a tufted beard and long hair, Watanabe’s men seemed etched by the hard labour of life, as they stood solidly set in their construction shoes, clad in jeans, sometimes short and rolled up, a checked shirt and a time-worn leather jacket, in typical logger looks. For next winter, Watanabe focused on an American apparel icon, the Mackinaw Cruiser jacket by the Filson brand.

Filson was founded in 1897 in Seattle by Clinton C. Filson, and it initially used  to outfit gold diggers, later creating clothes for other types of outdoor workers too.‌ The Cruiser jacket was introduced during the Alaska gold rush, and was patented in 1914 by C.C.‌Filson. The US brand’s‌ ‌authentic‌ workwear‌ items, reinterpretations of its historic models, robust and made to last, are now much appreciated also by hunters and fishermen.

The Mackinaw Cruiser Jacket has remained virtually unchanged since its first appearance. It is a distinctive check wool overshirt equipped with several pockets, one of them sewn onto the back, squarely across the shoulders. Watanabe had fun with the pockets and their flaps, featured in a variety of materials, leathers and colours. ‌He also experimented with the jacket’s front and back, which he fashioned out of contrasting materials like wool, denim, cotton, suede, leather, nylon, etc.

Similar variations were also used on the collection’s denim trousers, which incorporated check wool or leather inserts.‌ The collection’s utilitarian style blended subtly with an uber-chic preppy vibe. As illustrated by the cotton and leather gilets layered over a wool overjacket in large red and black checks, and over elegant office shirts with regimental tie. ‌For this collection, Junya Watanabe also collaborated with Levi’s for jeans and with Paraboot, New Balance and Hainrich Dinkelacker for footwear.

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At Maison Mihara Yasuhiro, French rapper Take A Mic set himself up with a desk at the end of the runway, as if he were in a TV studio. When the large screen behind him was backlit, the show’s entire backstage area was revealed as a shadowy silhouette. As often, a melancholy mood pervaded the show by the Japanese designer, still anchored to the 90s grunge period. Everything seemed a little dusty, almost faded. Like the succession of military jackets in washed, worn and damaged cotton, or the skillfully bleached jeans.

‌The silhouettes consisted of a haphazard layering of grey fleece garments (hoodies, T-shirts and sweaters), checked shirts, and jackets in flannel or thin corduroy. Sequins and tiny geometric patterns on some joggers and ultra-baggy jeans looked from a distance like dust or paint smears.

Mihara Yasuhiro gave a fresh twist to some of his classic items, presenting a series of hybrid garments, destructured, disassembled and then reconstructed with new proportions, often with a skewed centre of gravity.‌ Like the trousers whose right side floated outwards into a huge pocket, so useful for carrying one’s baguette!‌ The sleeves of some shirts multiplied and took off on a tangent, turning into scarves twirling around the neck.

‌A medley of jackets and shirts morphed into a skirt. Elsewhere, a skirt was cut from a pair of trousers. ‌The side edges of a bomber jacket shifted to the top of the garment, replacing the collar. A padded sky blue striped shirt burgeoned into the equivalent of a jacket in a denim ensemble.

‌The Japanese designer sprinkled touches of humor throughout the collection. Especially in his playful accessories, such as the small handbags with a banana or an ice-cream cone as handles, the boots shaped like a tote bag‌, and the luxury handbags, for example  the black quilted model with two golden chains … very Chanel. ‌Models identical to those developed by Spanish label Abra last season.

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‌Comme des Garçons Homme Plus brought Paris Fashion Week‘s fourth day to a close with a striking collection entitled ‘To Hell With War’.‌ Rei Kawakubo once again broadcast a profoundly anti-militaristic, non-violent peace message through her clothes.

‌Her young soldiers, actually looking more like deserters, strode on the runway to the poignant voice of Nina Simone, pleading to “‌Let the wind blow through‌ your‌ heart‌.” ‌As illustrated perfectly by the label’s new model of lace-up shoes, a kind of clown shoes with an upward-raised tip, embodying the idea the models were braking, or walking backwards.

‌Coiffed with rasta dreadlocks under helmets bedecked with colourful turbans and flowers, the models wore uniforms that seemed to fall apart. Shapes, colours, camouflage prints, patterns… Kawakubo disrupted everything in her path. ‌Officer jackets with double rows of gold buttons morphed into redingotes worn over crinkled silk shirts. ‌The trousers ballooned into puffy shapes, or were shortened to become loose flared shorts. ‌Everything has been disassembled and rejigged, narrowed or elongated, fitted, lightened up, equipped with zips: some jackets were transformed into trousers with rounded shapes, and some long skirts ended up bursting with pockets.

‌The label’s military looks featured the occasional brocaded or floral fabrics. ‌Khaki wools and cotton fabrics gradually mixed with textured velvet and denim, ‌fitting into pockets and in the collar of a blue striped shirt. ‌A swatch of green loden fabric was all that remained of the original garment in brightly colored patchwork coats and jackets, while pixelated multicolored shirts sparkled under some dark jackets.