Spring 2026 is the sophomore effort from Kenta Miyamoto and Kunimasa Odagi at Engineered Garments. That they’ve settled into their new roles enough to make a confident statement was clear walking into the label’s Long Island City showroom. Over half of the collection—and half of the space—was rendered entirely in black and white. Paisleys, checkers, houndstooths, stripes—you name the graphic, it’s likely that it featured in this lineup.
And it worked, too. Engineered Garments has made a point of amalgamating visual elements, with varying degrees of effectiveness, season to season. Here, the idea of utilizing black and white as an aesthetic gave the collection an organizational principle of sorts. Their reference was The Specials’ debut album, Special, from 1979, but this was a timely effort—some of the models in the lookbook wear checkered black-and-white slip-on shoes. That same style, popularized by Vans, has made its way back into fashion of late.
A third of the collection was rendered in color. It made for a striking contrast in the showroom, as it does in this lookbook. Close inspection revealed that there was not much relation between the black-and-white fabrics and graphic and the colorful ones. It was a smart choice to avoid a sort of technicolor gimmick—here’s the B&W and here’s the color—but it also made for what felt like two different collections. Two good looking ones, that is.
