BY JAY AQUINO

JUNE 24, 2026

For Setchu Spring/Summer 2027, the show opened with a black fishing net thrown over a pale blue pinstripe suit. At first glance, it pointed straight to a nautical theme: the sea, the fisherman, and the shoreline; however, Satoshi Kuwata was not interested in the obvious language of sailor stripes or romantic resort dressing. He treated the sea through labor, craft, and memory, grounding the collection in fishing culture and Japanese coastal dress.

The fisherman headbands brought the clothes closer to Japanese coastal dress, recalling the practical garments worn by Japanese fishermen in the mid-20th century. The reference did not feel nostalgic as Kuwata processed it through a modern wardrobe, asking what happens when the gestures of fishermen—knots, nets, protection, and exposure—are translated into contemporary tailoring.

As Sandra Salibian of WWD noted, Kuwata is an avid fisherman whose travels often feed directly into his collections, and for this season, those passions converged with Italian textile expertise, Savile Row tailoring, and Japanese craft. Handmade leather cords, tied using the Japanese square knot technique and inspired by fishing nets from Gabon, appeared across the collection. They wrapped around suits, slip dresses, and skirts like a second structure, sometimes protective, sometimes excessive, but at their best, they changed the garments. 

A pale slip dress printed with fish motifs moved like folded sailcloth, while a cropped navy jacket worn over a pale skirt used netting to add texture and weight, making the look feel worked by hand. The white openwork top, built through knots and circular cut-outs, distilled the idea most clearly. It looked almost made from rope, skin, and air.

An asymmetric olive trench opened to reveal a hot pink layer beneath, creating a contrast between military function and exposure. A boxy beige vest widened the upper body like modular protection, while short black shorts left the legs exposed. These were not easy menswear propositions, but they made sense within the Setchu world, where protection was never complete and the body was always partly revealed.

Where the collection occasionally wobbled was in the more staged moments, when the net became a prop rather than a principle. But those moments were outweighed by the clarity of Kuwata’s idea: how a fisherman’s world could reshape the modern wardrobe. The result felt strange and exact, not clothes for dressing like a fisherman, but clothes shaped by the way of life of one.

Discover Setchu here.