Introduction
Junichi Abe is a Japanese fashion designer and the founder of Kolor. After studying at Bunka Fashion College, he worked as a pattern cutter for Yohji Yamamoto and joined Comme des Garçons in 1989, moving from the Tricot studio into the team assembled around Junya Watanabe. In 1994 he left to co-found ppCM with Akinori Morita, Taku Watanabe and Soga, developing an independent, fabric-led approach outside the runway calendar.
When ppCM ended in 2004, Abe established Kolor in Tokyo. The label presented its first collection for Spring/Summer 2005, entered Paris with Spring/Summer 2008 and mounted its first official Paris runway show for Autumn/Winter 2012–13. Abe also introduced kolor BEACON, led the multi-season adidas by kolor project and received the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix in 2012. He stepped down as head designer after the Autumn/Winter 2025 show and remains connected to the company in an advisory capacity.
Design ethos
Abe’s work begins with pattern and material. Tailoring, military clothing, workwear and sportswear are taken apart at the level of collar, lapel, lining, sleeve or fastening, then recomposed so that the disruption remains visible without preventing the garment from functioning.
Fabric combinations create much of the tension: technical nylon against wool, corduroy against gabardine, knit against shirting, or a stiff surface placed beside something fluid. Colour follows the same logic. Muted indigo, grey, mustard, bronze and brown are interrupted by brighter tones or mismatched details, producing rhythm without conventional coordination.
The method is exact but resistant to fixed seasonal storytelling. Abe treated a collection as a balance of silhouette, fabric, colour and detail, with the emotional effect emerging from their composition. His strongest designs make complexity feel ordinary enough to wear, which allowed Kolor to move between a Paris runway, a product-led sub-line and technical sportswear without losing its identity.
Disclaimer
Career history
2025
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.
2015
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.
2013
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.
2012
Junichi Abe introduced kolor BEACON in 2012, with the first products marketed for Spring/Summer 2013. The sub-line separated product development from the main collection’s runway premise, allowing outerwear, casual clothing and accessories to be built around individual fabric and construction ideas.
2012
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.
2012
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.
2010
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.
2009
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.
2008
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.
2004
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.
1994
After leaving Comme des Garçons, Abe co-founded ppCM with Akinori Morita, Taku Watanabe and Soga under M-A-W-S Design Productions. The label avoided a conventional runway rhythm and concentrated on proprietary textiles, casual clothing and garments intended to remain useful beyond a single season, establishing several concerns that later carried into Kolor.
1989
Abe joined Comme des Garçons in 1989, first working with Tricot before moving into the team built around Junya Watanabe. The period sharpened his pattern-cutting practice and placed him inside a studio culture where technical fabric, workwear and disrupted construction were treated as systems rather than seasonal effects.
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