“I think that streetwear is a word that often gets misused in fashion and fashion journalism,” mused Yoon Anh on our call: “But to me streetwear is real wear: it’s what I see reflected on the people around me in Shibuya, in Tokyo.”
Two months after Yoon and her husband Verbal reacquired control of their 2008-founded brand from New Guards Group, she is busy taking Ambush back to its roots as a way of moving it forward. “We are reestablishing I think what got lost in the process of joining with a partner in another country with a different manufacturing system,” she said: “So we are working to strengthen the craftsmanship, bringing in artisans, and Made in Japan.”
The brand has five stores in Japan, she added, and there are plans in the works to open another. This is part of a short-term focus on DTC over wholesale: “Over distribution of merchandise has diluted a lot of the content; we want to make sure we bring unique pieces to customers. Also we are pulling back in order to strengthen and go forward.”
That was the context for this Chiba-shot collection that starred a cast Yoon said reflected her philosophy of streetwear just as much as the clothes: “Ambush has always grown from culture and music, and has been shaped to reflect the tribe of people who are around us in Tokyo. There is a real second-generation of kids who are forming the scene in Tokyo today with a multicultural background. I don’t think people in the European scene understand how multicultural Tokyo has become.”
Many-belted waistlines, cute animal print, varsity numbers, and tam-enormous berets were a few of the key motifs here. The patent loafers and oxfords looked a little incongruous in this coastline context but had the right level of elan for the metropolitan setting they’d been imagined living in. Yoon talked about the importance of layering, and likened the process of building her layers to laying a funk lick over the rest of an arrangement. The rhinestone bra top at the close was an outro that nicely linked her jewelry-design vocation over the garments that Ambush has grown to encompass. This change in direction for Ambush—smaller, observational and closer to its core reality—seemed like the right way to play.