Coming all the way from Tokyo, Unserten, an avant-garde menswear brand founded in 2020, had made a huge and positive impact at Vancouver Fashion Week on Day 3 of the event. Within a multitude of monochromatic pieces, the collection’s strong presence was also seen in the crowd, Riverdale’s Drew Ray Tanner who wore a magnificent coat. The pieces embodied gothic simplicity, gender-neutral style and lines and a mix of soft ribbons and silver metallic chains.
Flanelle had the opportunity to speak with UNSERTEN over the week, as they were back in Tokyo after the show.
Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us at Flanelle. The Vancouver Fashion Week show was your first collection, with most probably one of the biggest collection of the weekend. How many pieces were there, and how many pieces were missing?
Due to the ongoing pandemic, one of our team members couldn’t join us and we were worried that we wouldn’t get the pieces in his possession in Vancouver in time. In the end, we did get all of our pieces in Vancouver, but we cut down on some pieces for the runway and left them for the showroom for logistical reasons.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background as a designer, how you started and what drives your passion for fashion?
Our lead designer has an academic background in fashion and obtained their graduate degree in fashion design in Tokyo, with various research stays abroad. Although they studied painting and drawing since they were a child, they have always been interested in high fashion and the emotive expression designers are able to convey with their works.
The collection is mostly black and white, with very few colors and some design. Can you tell us more about the designs and patterns we can find on some of the pieces?
During their study in Tokyo, our lead designer did an internship for several Japanese high fashion brands that are well known for sticking mostly with black and white, which very much aligns with their personal fashion style. Because of our diverse and international team of friends located in Tokyo, we wanted to express this sense of East meets West and old meets new in our design and patterns.
What inspired you for this collection? Where did you get your inspiration and what was the context and message you wanted to showcase?
The name of our collection is AΛΣ IXH XAN (pronounced as “als ik kan”, and Dutch for, roughly, “as best as I can”): a reference to the Flemish early Renaissance painter Jan van Eyck, and a message we wanted to portray with this first collection. Our team is pretty diverse and thus we like to draw inspiration from the artistic traditions of our various hometowns. For this collection, we were greatly aspired by Flemish painters from the late Gothic period to early Baroque painting.
Now that the first collection is out, what are the next achievements for the future / this year?
We are still a bit overwhelmed by how successful VFW was for us, but generally, we hope we will be able to reach more people from hereon forward by collaborating with local artists and participating in other events. Concretely the next step would be, if things go well, to participate in the New York Fashion week and again in Vancouver. Moreover, we would like to put more focus on the genderless/unisex aspect of our designs and be more explicit about our support for the LGBTQ+ community both in Tokyo and worldwide.
About Vancouver Fashion Week (VFW):
The only industry event that deliberately seeks out worldwide award-winning designers from over 25 global fashion capitals, Vancouver Fashion Week is the world’s fastest-growing fashion week. VFW has promoted multiculturalism and emerging designers on their runways for….wait for it…. 31 seasons! By providing an accessible and internationally respected platform, VFW aims to identify undiscovered designers. It has offered the exposure to propel preceding designers to international success through international media attention and strong buyer connections.