Cune – A/W 2012-13 Collection – Tokyo Zombie Chic

Cune is a Japanese brand whose existence I am eternally grateful for, but am myself very unlikely to wear.  Their high concept collections have to be seen to be believed, and indeed when I saw the installation for this particular collection last Tokyo Fashion Week I seriously doubted it would enter production, but as ever designer Hironori Yasuda’s charismatic forthrightness that results in anti-sales which are advertised as 0% off and deliberately awkward coordinates has payed off with this all set to hit retail in the next couple of days.  The concept this time round is “Intestines and the Whites of One’s Eyes” which is interpreted quite literately with the aforementioned intestines spilling out of pockets or cuts in the fabric and comatose eyes as a constant theme throughout.  Pretty difficult stuff to imagine looking good, but it is all part of the Cune conceit, a counter-kawaii movement that is in itself the logical conclusion to the anti-kawaii dynamic we have seen all over the streets of Tokyo for the last year.

If you have preemptively scrolled down you are probably thinking who wears this kind of thing?  Especially as some of the dresses can break the 600000 yen barrier, well, the simple answer to that is that those high fashion items rarely turn up on the street in my experience, rather Cune’s second line of streetwear that you can see below keeps the brands alive and very visible.  Add to that a metric ton of t-shirts and accessories featuring the brand’s cute bunny mascot and you are probably getting the picture, their average customer being either students who frequent the Shimokitazawa flagship or else street fashion aficionados who patronize the Parco and Harajuku outposts.

Still every season I hope to see more of the high-concept stuff in the shops, rather than used as a means to sell iPhone cases, so drink this all in and just be grateful that Tokyo is a city where this can be considered vaguely financially viable, not to mention wearable.

I thought we would start with some easy to wear items – love the eye pocket on the cardigan.

The intestines when used with restraint such as the pocket handkerchief parody above do rather work.

Love those cute little eyeballs – obviously these have been a big trend this summer in Tokyo.

The subtle denim intestines on this one are probably my favorite implementation in the collection – just the right amount of creepiness.

Those army boots with eyes in the toes are magnificent as well – perfectly implemented in leather.

This is meant to be the insides of an intestine, beautiful in its own way I suppose.

A bit of a difficult one here, but like Ne-Net, the slightly creepy vibe is central to making the look work.

I hope you enjoyed that, I am more than happy to enjoy it from afar (and I absolutely do – Rebecca makes fun of me but I always schedule to see these collections if I can!), but if you want to see it in person then you can go to the official site here for more information and stockists.  I am afraid this is one brand with no interest at all in expansion or sales overseas so a shopping service will be your friend if you fancy some Cune in your life.