The mask is slowly slipping. Khoki—the anonymous collective of designers who have for the past couple of seasons been lighting up Tokyo with their idiosyncratic, happy-go-lucky approach to menswear—is slowly being pulled out of their self-made obscurity by the far-reaching arm of the fashion machine. The rules of the 2024 LVMH Prize dictated that semifinalist Khoki’s founder Koki Abe had to publicly reveal his name as the man behind the brand.
The designer stopped short of any further details, however, hiding his face in the lineup of semifinalist portraits with a mass of hair, Cousin It–style. If Khoki makes it through to the finals, however, then a face must be shown. Them’s the rules.
At a preview of the fall collection in Tokyo, Abe spoke excitedly about being short-listed for the prize but stressed that, whatever happens, nothing has changed about Khoki’s approach: The brand strictly operates as a group, a machine of which Abe himself is simply a cog.
That sense of unity was conveyed most literally this season in the colorful embroidery woven across a chore jacket and trousers. Each member of the team had added something that in some way represented himself: a villainous wolf for the member who grew up watching cartoons; a motorcycle helmet for one who loves his bike; skeleton hands for the resident goth; and a pack of cigs for the chain-smoker on the team.
Elsewhere, the brand showcased its chops for pattern cutting and quilting (two things the team’s members are exceedingly well trained at), splicing pinstripe suiting with jersey sweats to create an interesting new proposition that deftly mixed the suave with the sloppy or incorporating American quilting into black leather bikers. There was lots going on, but for the most part, it was cohesive—you can tell that team Khoki bounces well off of one another, and this lends a lightheartedness to their clothes. That’s not easy to do.
Other ideas this season had come through on a team research-trip-slash-vacation to Greece and Romania last year, and they’d put maps from the trip into the lining of the jackets as a memento. “It’s like the experiences we share become the design,” said Abe. “That’s where the fun comes from, and that’s what Khoki is about.”
If a face reveal does happen when the LVMH Prize finalists are announced later this week, it will be bittersweet. The group choosing to be quiet about themselves has felt like a genuinely fresh approach that fashion needs more of, sidestepping all of that sticky ego business by simply being a group of young designer friends making clothes together because they love doing so—and are good at it. Once upon a time, that might have been enough.
