Undercover Spring/Summer 2025 - Paris Fashion Week Men’s

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In a season where designers are grappling with themes of human unity amidst global fractures, Jun Takahashi’s Spring/Summer 2025 menswear collection for Undercover stood out as a poetic exploration of “fictional tribes” brought together under a shared sky. Drawing inspiration from West Asian and Middle Eastern influences, the Japanese designer crafted a nomadic confederation of globally gathered ingredients to envision a utopian world without borders.

Takahashi embraced the season’s hero fabric – rumpled, gauzy linen – cutting it into unstructured jackets and blousons with bohemian airs and loose, drooping sleeves. Drifting cloud motifs and colorful mismatched buttons lent a dreamy quality, while streamers, tassels and zip-off sleeves nodded to a spirit of transformation. The designer incorporated feminine elements like brocade cardigans trimmed with gold chains, and languid, floor-length skirts in filmy jersey.

Activewear silhouettes provided a contemporary counterpoint, with breezy nylon parkas, oversize Champion sweatshirts and cropped sweatpants grounding the collection in everyday wearability. Models donned lace eye masks, golden tiaras with jutting spikes, and ornate beaded collars, heightening the sense of a diverse global community united in celebration.

Prints of Italian artist Robert Bosisio’s nebulous, aura-like paintings evoked the universality of the sky above, a metaphor Takahashi poetically invoked to express his borderless vision. In a time of division, Undercover’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection was a lyrical reminder that beyond surface differences, we all share one world. As Takahashi reflected post-show: “To eliminate conflicts, you want borders to be eliminated – that’s the metaphor. And because I work in fashion, this is how I can express that.”