On a balmy autumn evening last year on a quiet residential street in Cinque Terre, two mothers who had been busying themselves all day with chores came out of their neighboring homes carrying chairs. They set together under the shade of a majestic lemon tree, and set about gossiping over wine as the sun made its lazy descent over the Riviera.
Shinpei Yamagishi, who had come to the town for a vacation, looked at this picture of immaculate banality with his mouth agape. “That scene struck me as possessing an indescribable, happy richness,” he said during a collection preview. “I was so moved—literally frozen in place—by the realization that this might be what true richness is all about.”
The Bed J.W. Ford designer, who is more acclimatized to the frenetic work-life-imbalance of Tokyo, has something of a European romantic in him, and it is this lazy sensuality that he has made his signature. This season, titled “Lemon,” was held in a leafy garden courtyard in the 10th, and read as a postcard to his memory of the women under the lemon tree, infused with his trademark louche silhouettes and lounge-lizard panache.
Yamagishi crafted a handful of suits with a classic Italian vibe—using techniques like pincettatura or pinched tailoring—“but that’s where the Italian-ness ends,” he said. Weightless T-shirts had an intentionally worn-in look, giving the impression that they’d been sweated into on a sunny holiday, while striped shirts were sheer enough to be almost diaphanous up close—and a couple sported painted lemon prints. Pinstriped trousers were made more comfortable with stripy waistbands that looked as though they belonged to sweatpants.
It was one of this week’s more convincing attempts at sexy summer dressing, and closed off the men’s show season with a delicious languidness, serving as a sign that, yes, it was finally time to rest.
