UNDERCOVER’s 35-Year Evolution: A Return to "But Beautiful".

Jun Takahashi has never been one to dwell on the past. His designs have always straddled the line between the avant-garde and the everyday, consistently pushing UNDERCOVER into new, unexpected territories. But for Fall/Winter 2025, as the brand marks its 35th anniversary, Takahashi looks back - not in nostalgia, but in reinvention.

UNDERCOVER’s Spring/Summer 2005 collection, "But Beautiful," stands as a defining moment in Takahashi’s career, a masterstroke of artistry that blurred the boundaries between deconstruction and delicacy. Inspired by Patti Smith’s androgynous, poetic rebellion and Anne-Valerie Dupond’s handcrafted stuffed animal sculptures, the collection married punk rawness with an almost whimsical fragility. This season, Takahashi revives that seminal collection as "But Beautiful 4," reinterpreting its signature elements through a modern, refined lens.

The Art of Reassembly

Takahashi has always thrived in assemblage, treating garments as canvases for patchworked storytelling. "But Beautiful 4" sees a return to those roots, with pajama suits exuding an undone elegance, asymmetric cardigans that hang with intention, and chopped denim held together by dangling belts. There is a deliberate looseness in the tailoring, a dreamlike structure that echoes the free-spirited nonchalance of its predecessor. The collection is less of a direct reproduction and more of an echo, much like an artist revisiting an old sketch and shading in the depths they once overlooked.

To put it in musical terms, "But Beautiful 4" is akin to an acoustic reimagining of a classic album - stripped down, raw, and revealing new depths of emotion in familiar melodies. Just as Patti Smith infused her poetry into rock’s rigid frameworks, Takahashi distorts conventional tailoring into something freer, more intuitive, almost as if the garments are composing themselves.

The Beauty of Imperfection

This collection also taps into Takahashi’s enduring fascination with imperfection. The birdlike skirt-suits, adorned with showers of buttons, feel like relics of a lost avant-garde fairytale, while the inflated puffer dresses hint at the paradox of protection and vulnerability. The hand-stitched shoes by Dupond, with their deliberate roughness, whisper of hands that crafted them with care, evoking the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi - the acceptance of transience and imperfection. It’s a reminder that beauty is often found in the unfinished, the frayed edges of a well-loved garment, the way a song can move us more when it carries the cracks of lived experience.

UNDERCOVER’s Place in the Now

As UNDERCOVER turns 35, it remains as restless as ever. The brand has recently launched a permanent GU sub-label and continues its rapid-fire collaborations, from artisanal jewelry with Bunney to street-savvy sweatsuits with Champion. This dynamism was evident in the FW25 runway show, where the newest Champion collaboration was woven into the lineup alongside Takahashi’s couture-level creations. If there was a rare misstep, it was this juxtaposition - the stark contrast between casual athleisure and the sheer craftsmanship of "But Beautiful 4" momentarily disrupted the show’s rhythm, much like a punk ballad being followed by a Top 40 pop track.

But this is Takahashi’s UNDERCOVER: a brand that thrives on contradiction, on the interplay of high and low, of rebellion and romance. "But Beautiful 4" is a testament to his ability to revisit the past without being trapped by it, to reimagine rather than recreate. Like a filmmaker who revisits a beloved script, adding layers of depth only time can bring, Takahashi turns his most personal work into something even richer. UNDERCOVER’s 35th anniversary isn’t just a reflection on what has been - it’s a declaration of what’s still to come.

---

Words by AW.

Photos courtesy of Undercover.