Between Subtlety and Statement, Identity Emerges
We live in an age of expression.
We open a laptop,
tap a smartphone,
and the first thing we do is
checking social media.
Everywhere in the world, people are asked
to “say something” in their own words.
If you say nothing, you’re left behind.
But if you say too much, you risk losing yourself.
A caption for a photo.
A narration for a video.
And yet—when all is said and done,
is the true “you” still there?
What if, in times like these,
there were a way to speak without words?
We’d like to remember that
clothing/dressing can be one such language.
Japan has long held this kind of aesthetic.
To remain quiet, to avoid standing out,
and yet to hold firmly to one’s core.
To read the air, to blend in,
but never to conform.
—The quiet strength of "shinobu",
the spirit of enduring with grace.
If that spirit were to be woven into clothes—
Tracing history, we arrive at the figure of the ninja.
They did not live to fight others,
but to survive themselves.
Strength and beauty dwell in the silence
that resists without resisting.
In the forest or in the city,
they became part of the scenery.
We take that way of being,
and cut it into garments
for those of us living now.
For Fall/Winter 2025,
KUON presents “Shinobu”—
clothes that speak without speaking,
each piece carrying its own quiet resolve.
On the internet, voices repeat, opinions collide.
To “endure” modern life may mean choosing
a style that melts into the air of the moment,
rather than one that insists on itself.
But this does not mean “plain clothes.”
It means garments that blend into today’s basics,
while carrying a quiet dissonance.
Clothes that harmonize with the city’s air,
not to project identity loudly,
but to let a quiet will within
surface gently.
Clothes that do not speak. Designs that do not insist.
This is not the absence of individuality.
It is in the unsaid, in the silence,
that our truest selves begin to show.
Shinobi Transformable Jacket & Vest
With a single smartphone, you can watch a film,
pay a bill, stay connected with friends.
What was once scattered now fits in one device.
Why not clothing, too?
The Shinobi Transformable Jacket / Vest
points to what comes next.
The Jacket adapts to every scene of daily life.
Wear it as a jacket in the city.
Extend the hem and it becomes a long coat.
Detach it, and it becomes a scarf.
Pieces removed wait quietly
inside a tote bag for their next moment.
When evening chill sets in,
they return as a scarf around your neck.
Instead of changing outfits
for the weather, for a meeting, for a mood,
you change the shape of what you wear—
clothing that bends with the shifting self.
The Vest shifts more quietly,
yet more boldly.
Hooded, stand-collar, no-collar.
A change at the neckline alters the presence.
The body transforms into an apron-skirt—
sometimes adding noise to a clean look,
sometimes displacing balance with grace.
Even the hood becomes a drawstring pouch,
or joins the Jacket
to return as a hooded coat.
Every detail speaks with the others,
responding to the “many selves” within you.
Compactness and multi-function
are demanded of a phone.
Why not of fashion as well?
One piece, free of one fixed style.
KUON imagines from the body outward,
granting freedom in form.
Changes of shape follow changes of life.
Not flashy transformation,
but quiet shifts,
absorbed naturally into the scene.
Ninja knew the art of presence
and the art of erasing it.
That spirit now returns in cloth.
Blending into the everyday, yet grounded.
Full of function, yet standing still.
The Shinobi Transformable Jacket and Vest
are garments for enduring the present,
and for answering the side of you
that has yet to be named.
And there is still more hidden within.
We choose not to reveal it here.
For even the Shinobi
kept silence when silence was required.
Kimono Collar Quilted Shirket
Sharpen your individuality. Make yourself stand out.
Online, the whole world feels like competition.
Every post is expected to catch the eye.
But must real life follow the same rules?
The harder we compete for uniqueness,
the more crowded individuality becomes.
What once felt rare
is now everywhere.
Normcore carried that irony within it.
After simplicity was celebrated,
came Gorpcore, Brokecore, Balletcore—
a flood of “cores” competing to be distinct.
What if we moved in the other direction?
What if we stripped away features,
and called what still remains
our individuality?
The Kimono Collar Quilted Shirket,
seen through the lens of Western dress,
is close to a double-breasted tailored jacket.
But this garment removes
the very emblems of tailoring.
No notch lapel, no peaked lapel.
Instead, a quiet kimono collar,
gently framing the chest.
Oriental in form, it does not call attention.
It simply shifts the atmosphere
around the one who wears it.
The neckline changes character
depending on what lies beneath.
A turtleneck, a crew, a shirt—
each finds its own quiet rhythm with it.
Where there is no loud personality,
a different kind of presence emerges.
Just as someone who speaks little
often draws us in all the more.
Step aside from the race of uniqueness.
There are silhouettes only visible there—
the sound of wind, the ground underfoot,
the air of those you pass by.
Contours that live within us,
a value too precious to overlook.
This shirket does not insist.
But it answers to the wearer’s breath,
to the rhythm of their movements,
revealing itself slowly.
“Shinobu” is not mere endurance.
It is the quiet strength
of blending in without erasing yourself.
The Kimono Collar Quilted Shirket
shapes that spirit into the fabric
of everyday autumn and winter.
Reversible Kimono Collar Blazer & 2 Tuck Trousers
Stripes once symbolized order and authority—
lines drawn to enforce boundaries.
In the early 20th century, on Wall Street,
stripes were favored by elites.
They conferred prestige on the wearer,
and at the same time
marked who was inside and who was out.
But in 2025, we no longer need to live
within those dividing lines.
The rules binding profession and dress
have lost much of their power.
Into this Western emblem of discipline
we weave Japanese form:
two-tuck trousers, drawn from the hakama,
and a blazer whose neckline
is shaped by a kimono collar.
The white lines of regulation
breathe with the silhouette of wa,
softening the boundaries
that once separated East and West.
A short, boxy cut
removes the tension of the jacket.
A deep rise and gentle volume
ease the solemnity of the trousers.
This is not an age
to display authority through clothes.
It is an age to wear freedom,
unbound by regulation.
Tailored from classical fabrics,
yet freed of classical constraints,
these garments carry silhouettes and details
untethered from tradition.
Guided by the spirit of “Shinobu,”
the classical steps lightly
into the street.
[Products in this article]
Reversible Kimono Collar Blazer
