Arashi Yanagawa is everyone's favourite ex-boxer - and not just because it makes for an unlikely backstory for an impressive segue into fashion design - but because he has been reviving Japanese menswear with his ability to strike a balance between the shapes of his homeland and the West where men are annoyingly in touch with youth culture and still come out looking on top. Following in his father's footsteps, Yanagawa spent thirteen years in professional boxing before using his fight money to work with local pattern cutters and release his first collection of two blazers. 

He has continued relentlessly since. This season sees him introduce his vision of a disco plaid rocker whose father desperately wants him to buck up, become a chartered accountant and quit spending most of his money on X. So he's been suited up and sent off in the town wearing platform oxfords, padded suits and gold-studded armbands. The Man may have victored but you can't take the bad out of the boy (Yanagawa later explained that failing to do so was the whole premise of the collection); thus a slick form of British boyhood reigns supreme.

Dazed Digital: So it would appear as though your punk rocker is going for his first job interview?
Arashi Yanagawa: [Laughing] Very close, very close! You see, I wanted to alternate between my sense of good and bad. To take a good man and see what parts of him are less than that. 

DD: And throw some studded armbands in there for good measure. What do you seek out in every collection?
Arashi Yanagawa: Tailoring. I love tailoring! Fitting to the human form is at the core of this thing.

DD: Not so serious though - this collection in particular, in all its disco plaid glory, is another testament to the fact that if you're in John Lawrence Sullivan, you're at a party.
Arashi Yanagawa: If you're in John Lawrence Sullivan, you're with Arashi Yanagawa.

DD: So you are the party?
Arashi Yanagawa: Yes. Yes, I am.

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