Telegraph: The Japanese avant-garde go underground
Jun Takahashi, the young punk fanatic, has a cult following in his native Tokyo and is rapidly building a legion of acolytes in France. At the prêt-à-porter season in Paris yesterday, Takahashi chose the maintenance tunnels deep underneath the giant Palais Omnisport stadium to unveil his spring/summer 2006 collection. His models paraded in semi-darkness, punctuated by the flickering light of several hundred candles, some two feet high. It was a suitably arcane and gloomy setting for clothes inspired by an imaginary 1970s German rock band and the sacred texts of the ancient Mayan civilization. The collection was based on T-shirts..."The T-shirt is a universal statement, almost a uniform, for the young," Takahashi explained of his anti-fashion, anti-Establishment message.
