Cold weather has been a prime motivator for designers across the globe this fall season. Writing from Tokyo, Daisuke Obana reported that the mercury has fallen unusually low in Japan, but it was an earlier trip to Greenland, Finland, and Iceland that informed this season’s N.Hoolywood Compile offering. Those adventures up north, the designer said, “offered a very quiet, almost gentle kind of inspiration,” which was evident in the snow shower blanketing the models in the collection video and lookbook, in a faux fur collar on a hooded jacket, and in some quite wonderful spliced sweaters that mix cable knits with Nordic patterns.
Cold segued quickly into cool here; this was not a collection destined for the slopes but for the streets. As such, it was true to what the designer observed on his travels. “I was initially searching for a stronger sense of history and indigenous presence, yet both Greenland and Iceland revealed themselves to be unexpectedly urban and contemporary,” Obana said.
Denim is the bedrock of a modern wardrobe and this season the brand’s jeans, which stand out for the intensity of the dye and the sturdiness of the material, were hero pieces. Corduroy has been everywhere this fall, but in this collection (look 16) it was oriented on a horizontal slant and, the designer said, “subtly nods to Eddie Bauer’s historic ‘All Purpose’ down blouson.” Obana’s historic exploration of cold weather dressing netted an endearing, awkwardly swelling silhouette. Bumble, the Abominable Snowmonster of the North, would approve.