kolor
Overview
kolor is a Japanese ready-to-wear label founded in Tokyo in May 2004 by Junichi Abe after the dissolution of ppCM, the independent project he had co-founded a decade earlier. Abe brought to the new house experience in pattern cutting, textile development and the Comme des Garçons studio system, including work with the team that established Junya Watanabe. Kolor’s first collection was produced for Spring/Summer 2005, followed by a first Paris presentation for Spring/Summer 2008 and its first Paris runway show for Autumn/Winter 2012–13.
The label developed a recognisable method by combining tailored, military and sportswear forms with mismatched fabrics, irregular colour relationships and construction that appears displaced without becoming unwearable. Menswear and womenswear share the same product language, while kolor BEACON, introduced in 2012 for Spring/Summer 2013, gives individual garments more autonomy from the thematic demands of the runway. The multi-season adidas by kolor project later extended this approach into technical performance clothing.
Kolor entered a new corporate and creative phase in November 2024, when Coronet Corporation acquired the business operations and Itochu Corporation acquired the trademark rights. Abe presented his final collection as head designer in Paris in January 2025 and moved into an advisory role. Taro Horiuchi succeeded him as creative director, debuting with Spring/Summer 2026 and continuing the house through increasingly narrative co-ed collections, including Spring/Summer 2027 “Aliens”.
Philosophy
Kolor is built through controlled mismatch. A conventional jacket, trench, knit or track trouser may be interrupted by a second fabric, an offset collar, an exposed lining, an unexpected fastening or a panel that shifts the balance of the garment. The construction is complex, but it is generally directed towards movement and use rather than spectacle alone.
Material and colour carry equal weight. Dense wool, ripstop, gabardine, jersey, silk, corduroy and technical synthetics are placed together so that differences in surface, weight and drape remain visible. Abe described the brand through rhythm and feeling rather than a rigid seasonal theme; colour works in the same way, with muted or earthy tones disturbed by brighter accents instead of resolved into conventional harmony.
Under Taro Horiuchi, the existing language of hybridity has remained legible while the collections have become more explicitly narrative. Weathered tailoring, cinematic references, androgynous proportion and treated surfaces have expanded the emotional range of the house without abandoning its product discipline. The continuity lies in making familiar clothes slightly unstable, then resolving that instability through pattern, fabric and wearability.
Recent events
Disclaimer
Creative timeline
Button TextTaro Horiuchi was appointed to succeed Junichi Abe as Kolor’s creative director in January 2025. His tenure retains the house’s fabric mixing, skewed tailoring and sportswear construction while introducing more explicit narrative frameworks, androgynous proportion and surfaces marked by ageing, weather and image-making.
On 25 January 2025, Junichi Abe announced that he would step down as Kolor’s head designer and move into an advisory role. The change ended twenty-one years of direct creative leadership while preserving the founder’s involvement during the house’s first succession.
On 1 November 2024, Coronet Corporation acquired Kolor’s business operations and staff, while Itochu Corporation acquired the trademark rights. The transaction placed the independent label inside a larger Japanese corporate structure and prepared the conditions for its first creative succession.
Kolor began a multi-season collaboration with adidas in 2015, applying its asymmetric construction and colour rhythm to technical running and training apparel. Climaheat, Climachill, Boost and other performance systems gave the project a functional basis, while Abe’s panel work and material combinations kept it connected to the main house.
Pitti Uomo invited Kolor as guest menswear designer for its 84th edition in June 2013. The presentation at the Sferisterio in Florence confirmed the international reach of Junichi Abe’s label beyond the Paris calendar.
Junichi Abe received the 30th Mainichi Fashion Grand Prize in 2012. The award recognised the sustained development of Kolor’s textile-led ready-to-wear and its growing international position as the house entered the Paris runway calendar.
In January 2012, Kolor moved from Paris presentations onto the official menswear runway calendar. The shift gave Junichi Abe’s hybrid tailoring, technical fabrics and controlled asymmetry a larger international platform and established the house as a regular fashion-week presence.
By 2010, Kolor had formalised womenswear as a distinct part of the business after initially developing the label through mixed and menswear-led collections. The expansion brought Abe’s fabric contrasts, layered construction and irregular colour relationships into a dedicated women’s line.
Kolor opened its Minami-Aoyama flagship in Tokyo in August 2009. The store gave the label a permanent retail setting for its menswear, womenswear and accessories as international distribution expanded beyond the presentation circuit.
Kolor began presenting in Paris in 2008, introducing Junichi Abe’s fabric-led menswear to an international buying and press audience. The move established a sustained European presence several years before the label entered the formal runway calendar.
Junichi Abe founded Kolor in Tokyo in May 2004 after the mutual dissolution of ppCM. Across two decades he developed the house through mixed textiles, offbeat colour, hybrid tailoring and sportswear, expanding from a domestic product-led label into a regular Paris runway presence while retaining close control of its design system.
Kolor lines
Kolor operates through a main runway label and the product-led kolor BEACON sub-line. Menswear and womenswear are presented within the same house structure rather than as separate brands.
Mainline
- kolor
- Men’s and women’s ready-to-wear
- The main label is the site of Kolor’s Paris presentations and runway collections. Tailoring, sportswear, military clothing, knitwear and technical outerwear are combined through asymmetrical construction, layered fabrics and deliberately irregular colour relationships.
Product-led sub-line
- kolor BEACON
- Casual menswear and accessories
- Launched in 2012 for the Spring/Summer 2013 season, kolor BEACON focuses on individual garments rather than a single runway narrative. The line concentrates the house’s fabric mixing, colour blocking and hybrid details into everyday outerwear, tops, trousers and accessories.
Kolor collaborations
Kolor has used collaboration selectively, usually where a partner supplies a technical system, product specialism or cultural context that can support the house’s construction methods.
Performance and product projects
- adidas by kolor
- Performance sportswear, 2015–2018
- The multi-season project combined adidas technologies including Climaheat, Climachill and Boost with Kolor’s asymmetric cuts, layered colour and mixed-material approach. Apparel and footwear were designed as functional performance products rather than a logo capsule.
- Casio G-Shock
- Limited-edition watch, 2018
- Kolor contributed a black-and-gold treatment to a limited G-Shock anniversary model produced in an edition of 700 pieces.
Music and runway collaboration
- On-U Sound and Adrian Sherwood
- Autumn/Winter 2024
- The British label and producer entered the Autumn/Winter 2024 collection through special apparel and a live musical component, extending Kolor’s layered construction into the sound and atmosphere of the show.
