Kolor SS26

The sun was beating down on us long before the first model stepped onto the Kolor SS26 runway. Most of the attendees were armed with oversized sunglasses and handheld fans. Moments before the show began, much of the audience had sought shelter under the arches of the runway space, "shadow chasing" if you will. JP leaned over to me, bringing me into an observation with a playful smirk, "We're Asian, we don't do tan!" It was thrown out lightly but lingered as the truest statement of the day. While some guests embraced the warmth, hoping for a sun kissed glow, many stayed tucked away, reluctant, illustrating how personal and cultural sunlight can feel.

It made me reflect on how Kolor, the Tokyo based brand under Junichi Abe, has always had this layered awareness of body, of culture, of perception. Today’s show reminded me that fashion isn’t just about what happens on the surface, but how the wearer negotiates what lies underneath.The collection unfolded like an orchestrated disarray where sharp tailoring collided with playful asymmetry. Junichi Abe showed once again that his vision thrives in contrasts; cropped bomber jackets with spliced seams, trousers cinched and twisted at unexpected angles, pastel knits layered over utilitarian nylon. It’s a world where structure never quite stays within its outlines.

The palette was an evolution from what we’ve seen in prior seasons: muted earth tones interrupted by jolts of lemon yellow and electric teal, offering visual shocks without ever tipping over into chaos. These juxtapositions of restraint and rebellion, polish and play are what make Kolor one of the few brands that feels alive in motion rather than trapped in mood boards.

What you notice at a Kolor show, beyond the clothes, is the loyalty of the audience, especially among Asian fashion editors, stylists, and buyers who form the backbone of support for designers like Abe in the European arena. Their presence, tucked in the shade, quietly mirrored the essence of Kolor; a careful, intentional navigation of spaces that weren’t originally built for them, finding comfort and identity in unconventional corners. It struck me how the physical experience of the show, sun soaked stone, the rush for shade, echoed the collection itself. Kolor doesn’t ask you to bask in gloss or brightness for its own sake. Instead, it invites you to consider subtleties and shadows, the distortions that come from layering, folding, and refracting.

Kolor SS26 was an invitation to rethink what harmony is, and who gets to define it. Watching the procession of tilted blazers, deconstructed shirts, and hybrids of street and tailoring, I realized that the sun overhead wasn’t just an inconvenience. It was a reminder that comfort isn’t found in exposure, but in the choices we make to keep ourselves, our bodies, our identities, our cultures...both protected and luminous.

KOLOR website