Tamme’s Tatsuya Tamada lives in his studio and works all the time, but when he does take a break he’ll cycle around Tokyo before stopping somewhere to chill out and people-watch. When working on this season, he pedaled down to the bustling districts of Shinagawa or Shibuya and observed a charming shift that happens among commuters during the evening rush hour.
“At work there’s a sense of discipline—a uniform, and the need to be neat and tidy,” said Tamada. “But once the day is over you can see that people kind of relax a little, as if they’re switching from group time to individual time.” He watched business men heading home after work, their shirts rumpled and their ties skew-whiff, unraveling into normal people rather than office workers. “Tired Girl” might be the latest TikTok beauty trend, but for Tamme, it’s Tired Salaryman that’s the look of the season.
Tokyo’s offices are relatively formal, even during ‘Cool Biz’ (the government-approved summer period where liberal office dress codes are introduced in order to reduce air-con usage), which gave Tamada’s work a curious tension. “This kind of desperate effort to be yourself within a disciplined framework has been around for a long time, and is something I’ve always thought was interesting,” he said. “Many of the designs in this collection have a dual structure. I wanted to express this idea of people who appear to be neat and tidy but are really a bit rough, or people who appear to be free-spirited but are very sensitive on the inside.”
Softly tailored suits were covered in wrinkles, while button-up office shirts were given double collars that peeled away to reveal the contrasting layer beneath. Somber navies and grayscale dominated the collection, but the crumpled tank tops and office shirts were peppered with the faintest milky green and buttery yellow. There were also nods to manual labor in the robust cotton duck hooded jackets and work pants, plus some denim pieces that were whiskered with fading that suggested the wearer had been sitting down.
Tamada, a former Sacai pattern cutter, is adept at melding the worlds of military wear and tailoring, and his pieces are always made with plenty of design details and adjustments that make you feel you’re getting your money’s worth. Loose striped neckties that attach at the neck with a silver popper are one of the brand’s signatures. In this season’s lookbook, the ties that are slung over the shoulder are no editorial styling trick: Tamada made sure the shirts had loops under the backs of their collars, so the ties can be threaded through and worn like this, should the wearer be so inclined. It’s clever detail that shows Tamada’s meticulous approach, and testifies to his own hard work.