Despite the runaway success of his first collaboration with Onitsuka Tiger in 2013, Andrea Pompilio has taken yet another fresh direction for his SS19 line. This year, Pompilio sent out a collection that was uniquely personal – a nostalgic yet confident return to the futuristic forms of Onitsuka Tiger’s early work with Bruce Lee. Pompilio often describes his work with Onitsuka Tiger as a successful co-branding: an Italian designer bringing his European mentality and taste to a rather traditional Japanese sportswear company. “The SS19 collection is a melting pot of different cultures inspired by the mixing and meshing of various references,” he said during the show debrief. Indeed, the rather obvious combination of materials and prints combining modern graphics in the SS19 collection certainly alludes to not only conclusive opinions about the trends, culture and style of next spring but also is a clear depiction of fashion globalization today: a chaotic pluralism, expanding in every corner only to depict the “fusion” of different cultural elements found in a single garment.
…global society where people hold a diversity of world views and celebrate different forms of love. — Andrea Pompilio
Words by Daniella Sabnani
If last season’s collection, with its classic track jacket, loose-fit knits and oversized caps, was inspired by the fashion of 1920s New York, this season no doubt followed suit, crossing the style of different classic items with a modern flair. The show began with an emotionally epic remix of Blondie’s 1970s disco classic, Heart of Glass (Crabtree remix). To Philip Glass’s violin Concerto, male and female models walked along the Okuma Auditorium stage in clothing inspired by the “Summer of Love”. The show-stopper, or the Instagram favorite was most certainly the Kill Bill style yellow and black tracksuit paired with the brand’s iconic Mexico 66 sneaker as seen in Bruce Lee’s Game of Death film. “In any season, we try to make obvious references like this. The tracksuit looks straight out of a Kill Bill movie!” commented Pompilio.
The collection also featured five looks that doubled up on denim often marrying different shades of the versatile material with different layers. We’re talking light wash denim trousers paired with a similarly hued chambray button down, a denim shirt-dress paired with a casual “throw-on-and-go” denim bomber, denim bucket hats, denim high tops and so much more! Pompilio’s new iteration of the classic denim-on-denim trend strip the Western Canadian tuxedo vibe the look can so often emit, and instead we’re getting sophisticated, contemporary and fashion forward feels all around. The Hawaiian shirt, with a whole history of its own, also made a comeback in Onitsuka Tiger’s SS19 line. The vacation friendly look featured a matching knee length short and button down shirt that displayed a vibrant and bold nature based print with graphic wordings written across its front. While the Hawaiian shirt is often referred to as a novelty garment, Pompilio’s creative reinvention of the 1930s American trend was an effortless look so easy to wear but with much panache and sophistication at the same time – a composite of bunches that somehow never appeared sloppy. Both male and female models wore the look, reiterating the “genderless” and progressive element of Pompilio’s creative direction. While the concept of gender fluidity has only recently entered mainstream conversation, Pompilio was sure to create an androgynous and borderless collection that reflected a “…global society where people hold a diversity of world views and celebrate different forms of love”.
