Undercover

The first comprehensive book on the work
of Jun Takahashi of UNDERCOVER, an icon of Harajuku streetwear and the
presumptive heir to the heavy mantle of Japanese deconstruction. Takahashi
Jun's fashion is not born out of an excessively intellectualized agenda.
While not quite populist, his generative influences are instead
romantic--even gothic. A fixture of the Paris collections for more than ten
years--plus seventeen uninterrupted seasons in Tokyo prior to
that--Takahashi's life's work confirms a maturation from self-conscious
artifice and rebel pastiche to a steely, withering elegance all his own.
Hailing from Gunma Prefecture like his friend NIGO(R) of *A Bathing Ape(R),
Takahashi's long association with the undisputed king of Ura-Harajuku in the
early 1990s is now the stuff of local fashion lore. But Takahashi would blaze
an entirely different path to legend and notoriety. The violent rending and
hasty reassembly that characterized his early work, its calculated
imperfections and sutured seams, have given way to collections that he
himself now calls "sexy and feminine." UNDERCOVER is insightfully
curated with fashion-filled chapters devoted to Takahashi's sketches, graphic
work, collaborations, and most innovative designs to date. Lavishly
illustrated with more than 200 photographs and in-depth essays by fashion
writers, curators, and colleagues, this book gives readers first time access
into Takahashi's UNDERCOVER, one of the most desired and multidimensional
clothing lines in contemporary fashion.