Lifestyle
Junya Watanabe Brings Back the Lumber Sexual at Paris Fashion Week Menswear Show
I had washed up in Brooklyn, circa 2009.
Physically, I was in Paris, sitting at the Junya Watanabe fashion show. But spiritually? Oh boy, I was in Williamsburg in the Obama era.
It was the models in their husky Filson jackets, the buffalo checks, the tan cloth bags, the mondo hiking boots and the dark-wash cuffed jeans.
But most of all, it was the feathered-out mountain man beards. I could practically smell the beard oil. I might as well have been getting my haircut at an $80 barbershop on Driggs Avenue while listening to Arcade Fire and drinking an I.P.A. The lumber sexual, folks, is back.
At least in Mr. Watanabe’s hands. The designer, part of the Comme des Garçons extended universe, is a singular force. Thus far in Paris, he is the only designer plumbing our recent hipstery past for inspiration.
Still, it was more than a little disorienting to see the ghosts of the aughts heritage movement — a wave that sent urban-bound men wild for good ol’ outdoorsy essentials like raw denim, Barbour coats and Filson cruiser jackets — revisiting us so soon. Were it 15 years ago, this collection would have received wall-to-wall coverage on “#menswear” blogs like A Continuous Lean. Fashion trends cycle around fast, but really? This fast?
Backstage, Mr. Watanabe dumped some cold Pacific Northwest water on this notion. Yes, he was familiar with the heritage wave that reared up in America two decades ago. There was a similar movement in Japan, he said through a translator.
But that was “not related to this” show.
Rather, Mr. Watanabe said, this collection was a meditation on how much he revered the four-pocket Filson Mackinaw Cruiser, a hip-length coat that was originally patented by the American outfitter in 1914.
He was, he said, “sharing the classic, good old workwear with Filson,” with whom he partnered on the collection.
Sharing, yes. But also reimagining. Each model in the 41-look show wore some twisted conceptualization of a Mackinaw. They came reconstructed, deconstructed, lengthened to a parka, Frankensteined to a shearling, shaved into a blazer-type thing, given a pumpkin orange back panel and worn over another Mackinaw. All that was missing was a Mackinaw mutated into a jumpsuit.
This being a utilitarian design associated with lumberjacks and hunters, it was possible to wonder if Mr. Watanabe was making a grand statement about returning to nature in the face of artificial intelligence onslaughts and the tech oligarchs conquering the world? After all, the first heritage movement came as an answer to the online start-up boom, when men began to crave something analog, something they could feel with their hands, something they could treat like a tool.
Backstage, though, Mr. Watanabe was not in the mood to wheat paste grand ideas onto this collection. The Filson jacket “exists for a long time,” he said, squelching further questions about this temporal trend or that.
Still, near the conclusion of the show, the words “I see a change on the rise” came through on the soundtrack. To my eyes, it was not a change that Mr. Watanabe was offering, but a return, for on Friday morning, the heritage hipster could once again be spotted coming over the horizon.
Emma Mackey as the title character in Ella McCay.
Claire Folger/20th Century Studios
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Claire Folger/20th Century Studios
A stellar cast can’t save James L. Brooks’ dramedy in theaters this week. Luckily, there are other choices, including an Alia Shawkat-led military satire and a horror fantasy from the creator of Pushing Daisies.
They’re joining Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Fackham Hall, Hamnet, Wake Up Dead Man, Wicked: For Good and more at cineplexes. Here’s our movie roundup from last week, and the week before.
Here’s what’s new.
Ella McCay
In theaters Friday
YouTube
85-year-old James L. Brooks has such an enviable track record as a TV creator (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, The Simpsons), and movie writer/director (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, As Good as It Gets), that it’s hard not to hope for the best when he makes his first feature film in 15 years. Alas, this treacly, tone-deaf dramedy centered on the travails of its titular idealist will be nobody’s idea of a good time. Ella (Sex Education‘s Emma Mackey) is lieutenant governor of an unnamed state, who becomes governor when her avuncular mentor (Albert Brooks) resigns to take a cabinet position.
Buttressed by a supportive aunt (Jamie Lee Curtis) and a wisdom-spouting driver (Kumail Nanjiani), while being undercut by a neglectful dad (Woody Harrelson) and opportunistic hubby (Jack Lowden), she embarks on a singularly inept attempt to do public good while also counseling her agoraphobic little brother (Spike Fearn) on how to win back his girlfriend (Ayo Edebiri). That is an indisputably impressive cast, which makes it all-the-more remarkable that not one of them manages to make the film’s dialogue or motivations either plausible or comic. — Bob Mondello
Atropia
In limited theaters Friday
YouTube
We begin in a bustling Iraqi village, with teenaged American soldiers confronting villagers in turbans and hijabs who look as if they’re going about everyday life in … oh never mind, it’s all fake. Atropia is a town constructed in the California desert to train green troops before they’re sent off to fight in the Middle East. These towns evidently exist in real life, though they’re presumably not put to uses as goofy as they are in Hailey Gates’ scattered satirical romp. Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) plays an aspiring actress who still nurtures dreams that this gig will further her acting career. Callum Turner (a handsome inexpressive lug in The Boys in the Boat) is now a marginally more expressive lug as a returning vet playing an Iraqi insurgent to exorcise his own demons and maybe give a few green soldiers some pointers. The setup’s fun, the payoff less, but it’s amusing. — Bob Mondello
Dust Bunny
In theaters Friday
YouTube
Where do you stand on the notion of “dark whimsy?” Because that’s what the horror/fantasy film Dust Bunny will be serving up — in a big way — in select theaters. It’s writer/director Bryan Fuller’s feature debut, although he’s put in plenty of time on the small screen (he’s the guy behind Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies and Hannibal). The premise is simple — a young girl (Sophie Sloan) is terrified of a monster under her bed, and recruits an assassin for hire (Mads Mikkelsen) to kill it. It’s the execution (heh) that matters, though — and that execution is stylized to a fare-thee-well, in a mode reminiscent of the go-for-broke fabulism of films like Delicatessen, The City of the Lost Children and, yes, Amélie. If you like that sort of approach, it’s whimsical; if you hate it, it’s twee. (Me, in this case I lean more to the former, because the film features Sigourney Weaver as a kind of executive assassin. There is nothing twee about my girl Sigourney goddamn Weaver, and there never has been.) — Glen Weldon
Taylor Swift
Sorry Haters, I’m Not Leaving the Spotlight
…And Shout Out to Travis for Being my Rock!
Published
Taylor Swift‘s got some practice shaking off the haters … and now, she’s got a simple response for critics who want her to “go away.”
Check out her Wednesday appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” — she claps back at naysayers who plead with her to exit the spotlight, bluntly arguing … “I don’t want to!” Case closed.
Nearly in the same breath, the “Opalite” hitmaker shouts out her fiancé Travis Kelce as being one of her 3 favorite people to turn to for life and career advice, enthusiastically noting … “I can talk to him about any of this.”
Travis was included alongside Fleetwood Mac icon Stevie Nicks and her frequent studio collaborator Max Martin as 2 other people who she can go to with anything, from industry questions to how to navigate animosity. Complimenting them further, she said one of the things she idolizes in people the most is career longevity — and of course, they’ve all had incredibly successful careers in their respective fieds.
But she’s not just about career talk. She told Colbert she’s also dazzled by longevity in friendships and relationships.
Taylor also spoke about the seismic impact of her Eras Tour as she prepares to drop the first 2 episodes of her “The End of an Era” docuseries, which falls on her 36th birthday.
In a sneak preview “Good Morning America” dropped earlier Wednesday, Taylor became emotional as she spoke about the complications that come with putting on such a massive event. Fans, of course, are also looking forward to getting a glimpse of her blossoming relationship with Travis in the docuseries.
From the studio to the stage and beyond, it seems like Tay is surrounded with plenty of support — and has no plans on slowing down!
A political dramedy, military satire, and dark whimsy — in theaters this week
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