The Tamesis
The details at Hyke’s show were darker than last season, making them a bit hard to read against the black curtains in the lookbook images, but there was still a lot to appreciate in the collection up close.
As usual, Hideaki Yoshihara and Yukiko Oide—who ran a vintage clothing store together before Heike’s day—repeated old workwear, teasing out contemporary pieces from silhouettes that are sometimes a century old. Highlights include a CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) logging jacket originally designed for U.S. forestry workers, now updated with tactile wool and technical-looking fabrics, and a CPO (Chief Petty Officer) jacket made from alpaca. This is just the abbreviable part. Another great moment came with the Fair Isle pattern on a sweater—buttoned cardigan and neck gaiter—which turned out to be a reinterpretation of Ode’s favorite Nordic sweater, with subtle frills at the shoulders that reflected the chic, feminine style the brand is known for. “Each season is an evolution of the same concept, but we want it to be different each time,” Yoshihara said. “We rely on intuition to update it.”
In addition to its geeky focus on vintage styles and technical fabrics, Hyke always seems to have a ton of interesting collaborations coming up. This season, that includes some leather ankle boots and loafers, aptly named “Beautiful Shoes,” as well as some hard-working looking styles from Eyevan. It’s the collaboration with Eddie Bauer that stands out the most, though, perhaps because it taps into the duo’s superpower of breathing new life into old clothes. The collaboration resulted in a number of down jackets, including a reinterpretation of Eddie Bauer’s 1936 Skyliner jacket – the first down jacket to be patented in the United States.
While Ode and Yoshihara love referencing history, they’ve always had a knack for making everything look just right through their bold use of silhouette and volume. A double-breasted jacket is cut high-waisted, paired with loose tailored trousers and a blue chambray button-down shirt that falls elegantly to the ankles. A few generations from now, another pair of retro nerds will likely reinterpret Hyke’s own archives.
