The Tamesis
“Fashion once belonged to no one.”
So says Masu’s Shinpei Goto, who has been resisting the fashion machine. “Fashion should be enjoyable for everyone, but the brands that dominate Paris Fashion Week determine what is right,” he said at a preview of this season’s collection in Tokyo. “I didn’t want to be in that game.”
Goto’s rebellion against fashion’s feudal system was more than just talk. Over the past few seasons, the designer has moved away from holding fashion shows or simply releasing lookbooks, instead investing in live events for the brand’s many fans, known as “Masu Boys.” Titled Masuboysland (just like Disneyland), the latest release is an archival auction in Tokyo that doubles as a mini-preview of his fall 2026 collection. The show was a sell-out, with 1,000 fans paying to watch. How many emerging brands could pull off the same feat?
Goto has a knack for squeezing the glitz and romance out of historical menswear and injecting it into streetwear with an anachronistic androgyny. This season, he drew on historical sartorial styles—preppy argyles for the country club, rugged denim for the manual laborer, ruffled collars for the aristocrat—and transformed them into a piece with modern silhouettes and baroque craftsmanship.
The hems of pistachio argyle cardigans were artfully mothed, tailored jeans had velvet patches or pressed creases, and quilted plaid jackets had ruffled collars. A collaboration with Puma has produced a blazer with lots of buttons that give it a Victorian-era look. “Old clothes, whether they’re aristocratic clothes or work clothes, are made with care and I’m incredibly inspired by that,” he added.
He named the collection “Sweet Riot”: “It’s a riot, but in a masu style, so it’s still sweet and tender.” It’s something his small army of well-dressed fans can get behind.
