ATHLEISURE GALORE
ANDREA POMPILIO COMBINES FASHION, SPORTS AND HERITAGE FOR ONITSUKA TIGER’S SPRING/SUMMER 2020 COLLECTION. ANINDYA DEVY REPORTS FROM TOKYO, JAPAN
What happens when an Italian is in charge of a Japanese heritage fashion brand? Well, Andrea Pompilio is handling it like the pro that he is. With a great resume under his belt, you can say that Onitsuka Tiger’s decision to appoint Pompilio as its creative director after several seasons of successful collaboration was a wise one. Before establishing his own brand in 2011, Pompilio has also worked for Prada, Calvin Klein and Saint Laurent. Under Pompilio’s guiding hand, Onitsuka Tiger continues its ongoing mission to become more relevant to today’s market.
Late last October, the iconic Japanese brand hosted its spring/summer 2020 runway show in
Tokyo. The show was held at the Shin-toyosu Brilia Running Stadium with 450 guests in attendance to witness the latest collection created by Pompilio. As they entered the stadium, they were met by a scene illuminated in an illusionary blue light. There were white lines along the stadium, marking lanes for the runway show. When the blue lights slowly dimmed, the runway show started with a nouvelle urban sporty performance, such as tricking and wheel gymnastics, demonstrated by a group of athletes. A marching band, meanwhile, provided a musical performance.
The spring/summer 2020 collection pays homage to Kihachiro Onitsuka, the founder of
Onitsuka Tiger, and coincides with company’s 70th anniversary. Inspired by the uniforms of various sports, the collection revolves around five themes—The New Youth, The Modern Uniform, The New Casual, The Sports Obsession and The Free Spirit—and champions three attitudes, namely The Masculine Feminine, The Genderless and The Global Diversity.
And true to the theme, models came out with tank tops and casual sportwear pieces crafted with mesh materials from basketball uniforms, denim cargo pants that were inspired by climbing and fitted multicolored T-shirts inspired by racing.
The color palette was fresh and sporty with hints of neon yellow, orange, pink and indigo. Padded jackets, meanwhile, took inspiration from horse riding, coats made from transparent materials were inspired by sailing and a fitted bicolor knit pullover weaved in polyester thread was inspired by diving.
After the show, DAMAN chatted with the charismatic designer about the brand’s latest collection and coincides with company’s 70th
anniversary. Inspired by the uniforms of various sports, the collection revolves around five themes—The New Youth, The Modern Uniform, The New Casual, The Sports Obsession and The Free Spirit—and champions three attitudes, namely The Masculine Feminine, The Genderless and The Global Diversity..
DAMAN: Can you tell us about how you approached designing this spring/summer 2020 collection?
Andrea Pompilio:
This collection for me is a big homage to Tokyo in general. The reason why it’s a big moment for Tokyo is because there will be the [ Winter] Olympic games in a few months. That’s why you see a lot of luggage pieces in the collection, a lot of bags. People will come to Tokyo from all over the world and over the past few years, Tokyo has become one of the biggest capitals of the fashion industry.
Onitsuka Tiger is a very historical company and a lot of logos you see on the bags, the socks and the ready-to-wear pieces come from the archives, from past Olympic games. The collection is inspired by sports in general and is put together in a very luxurious and sophisticated way—not as sportswear, even though we are a sports company.
DA: With the sportswear trend on the rise, how do you differentiate Onitsuka Tiger from other brands?
AP: The difference between Onitsuka Tiger and other brands is that we are, little by little, moving into prêt-à-porter with less emphasis on streetwear. In terms of finishing and styling, we’re going for a more prêt-à-porter kind of feeling: higher level and more luxurious.
DA: What is the creative process behind your collections?
AP:
In general, I always look at the people around me. I travel a lot, so I watch and look at people even in the airport or wherever. The way people, even on the street, dress can give you a feel of what the market looks like—what the market wants and doesn’t want. For me, that’s the most important thing. That’s the beginning of the process.
At Onitsuka Tiger we’re actually very lucky because we have a very strong history, so we have a lot of lookbooks and images from the past. Each season, we start to look at these catalogs and put post-it notes on the designs that evoke emotions. From there. we start to build the whole collection.
DA: Are there any connections from the previous collection to this one?
AP:
Always. There are always a lot of connections between one collection to another. For example, all the padded pieces we did for the fall/winter ’19 collection was translated in a very soft light for this collection. And colorwise, there’s always orange or yellow coming out, because it’s part of our DNA and it’s important to keep it that way. If not, people and the customers will lose track of who we are. So, we need to keep things consistent—the philosophy and the point of view of the brand.
DA: All in all, what do you consider the highlights of this collection?
AP:
There’s a lot of stuff, honestly. I think it’s more about the attitude. To see the models happy while backstage is already a big goal. Because it’s work for them—they have to do this for the money. I work with a lot of models and sometimes they’re not happy. Last night, before they left they told me that they want this shoe and that shoe, and for me, that’s already important feedback. Personally, I love everything in this collection.
“There are always a lot of connections between one collection to another”