Before it was a trend, Junya Watanabe made gorpcore cool

kikokurative
Oct 7
2 min read

As a huge fan of Junya Watanabe, I had to share one of my all-time favorite collections : Spring-Summer 2005.

But before diving in, for those who may not be familiar, Junya Watanabe is Rei Kawakubo’s longtime protégé. He began working at Comme des Garçons back in 1984, after graduating from the famous Bunka Fashion College, just like Nigo.

Over the years, he worked his way up the ranks, and by 1992, Rei Kawakubo gave him the opportunity to launch his own line under the Comme des Garçons umbrella. That’s how Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons was born.

Now, back to Spring/Summer 2005, a collection that honestly could have dropped today and still felt completely relevant. It even reminds me in some ways of White Mountaineering's Spring/Summer 2026 show.

The collection featured 61 looks centered around hiking, climbing, and the broader world of outdoor sports. There were even nods to fishing, but always reimagined through Junya’s lens : offbeat, highly fashionable, yet never losing their functional edge.

As always, Junya worked in some brilliant collaborations with Porter on utility cargo shorts, and Goldwin and Gore-Tex on technical outerwear.

What he did here was ahead of its time : envisioning clothes that could live both on the trail and in the city, without ever compromising on aesthetic, always with a touch of madness.

Source : constant_practice Junya Watanabe x Porter Utility Cargo Short

Watanabe wasn’t just designing clothing, he was presenting a whole vision of the outdoors where gear became beautiful, and functionality was a statement in itself.

This show anticipated the entire “utility dressing” movement and the crossover between urban fashion and outdoor gear that so many brands are chasing today. It proved that technical details could be not only practical, but also visually powerful, something we now see constantly in contemporary fashion.

True to Junya's world, there were plaid prints on jackets and shorts, but done in bold, unexpected colorways that broke from the usual outdoorsy palette.

The styling was intentionally surprising pairings of colors and fabrics you wouldn't expect to work, but that somehow came together flawlessly.

A perfect example : a technical shirt with climbing-style utility pockets… in a Hawaiian print.

Junya also added punk-inspired elements like bondage straps and what the Brits call “bum flaps” just enough edge to disrupt the clean lines of outdoor wear.

Models walked in heavy-duty footwear, styled with ropes, harnesses, and even crampons, bringing the theme to life in a theatrical but wearable way.