When you’ve been in business as long as Daisuke Obana has—N.Hoolywood just marked 25 years—fashion will likely come back around to where you are. Asked to share what he’s picking up on his fine-tuned radar, the designer wrote: “I’ve been sensing a transformative shift in trends across the Asian market…. It feels like the mindset is shifting toward simpler, more practical items. In a way, it’s starting to feel more aligned with what we do.”
The practicality and functionality of N.Hoolywood TPES is visible at first glance, but nothing Obana does is exactly “simple.” His knowledge of military gear is prodigious and each TPES season he does a deep dive into a specific aspect of combat/outwear gear. For spring the focus is on mountaineers; he and his team spent hours looking at documentary footage of climbing expeditions, which set the direction of the styling.
The casting lent a documentary aspect to the lookbook. Such body diversity is rare on the runway and in fashion imagery, and it was refreshing to see the clothes in action. The idea, wrote Obana, was to underline “the connection between physicality and work, I suppose, as well as the element of being multinational.”
Adding interest to familiar silhouettes was the palette, which included white and a dusty plum in addition to olive drab and black. There are many small details to take in, from the placement of a label to the unexpected appearance of a pocket on a sleeveless top. This offering also contains five collaborative ventures, which are not taken on lightly; they allow TPES to offer products outside of their expertise that are in sync with the theme and aesthetics of a given collection. In partnership with Wacoal Men, Obana and his team devised “a groundbreaking [undergarment] design that is sizeless, reversible (front and back), and seamless.” Military-inspired towels are made of a special bamboo-infused yarn with Japanese company Hippopotamus; a watch strap was developed with Tokyo-based vintage military watch specialists Curious Curio. With American company DannerAn, said Obana, he “created a low-cut version of the military-approved ‘Tachyon’ series;” and continued an ongoing partnership with British military purveyors, ArkAir. Evidently it takes a village to climb a mountain.
