MASU: No Boys Allowed

MASU (pronounced mass-ooh) by Shinpei Goto is important because A$AP Rocky is important. MASU represents the difference between the A$AP movement and Lil Yachty, which is authenticity. Glossy, branded appearances of mainstream pop pap can be fun, or at least blandly aspirational. When creature comforts make a crash landing, well that leaves a lasting impression. This is when authenticity corrupts the way society (or a parent) perceives you. Authenticity revolutionises your insides with an urgent force to look at life differently. Consider Disney or Michael Jackson as pop cultural institutions that changed entertainment. Consider A$AP Rocky, who wears MASU on occasion. Rihanna didn’t start a family with Lil Yachty did she?

In 2017, Shinpei Goto chose to shift preconceptions in a conversation with MASU’s owner. The Bunka Fashion College graduate stressed that he could not design for MASU unless he could be himself. And in 2021, MASU values exploded. That year, the MASU angel logo was caught in a romantic embrace with another angel, genders undefined, both in bliss. Goto took MASU from drowsy sportswear into a dream-filled utopia using his own thoughtful menswear psychology. MASU emphasises queer, feminine and non-binary spectrums to recode fashion terminology. His gift to us is MASU Boy’s Club, a non-linear playground where sincerity designs the surface of his clothes. Through MASU, Goto redesigns emotional intelligence into coded stereotypes he observes in society. He questions their validity. He pokes at neanderthal testosterone vibes. He democratises the term ‘Boy’ to involve anyone who appreciates the MASU world, not just boys. MASU re-codes ballet flats, camisoles, lace, toile de jouy and men’s clothing archetypes as an emotional outlet for an audience exhausted with fixed, dogmatic manhood.

This approach to neutrality is a good way into understanding MASU S/S 25. Goto chose to play with subtle nuances inside traditional Ivy League dress codes. Less a reinterpretation and more of a respectful collaboration led by playfulness, Goto took his reverence for vintage clothing to disentangle clothing classics that added spontaneity into hard-boiled argyle, rugby, school crests and upper crust sensibilities. Goto titled the result ‘greyish tale’ and then made a fashion film days after his Paris show. On the eve of the film’s release that coincides with the first MASU delivery for A/W 24, Goto took time to discuss how ‘greyish tale’ came together.

M-C Hill: How are you, Shinpei?

Shinpei Goto: I'm good.

M-C Hill: Shall we just get into it?

SG: Yes, yes.

M-C Hill: How were the days after the show where you could chill a little bit, hang out with friends in Paris?

SG: Not really, couldn't do that.

M-C Hill: Oh, I thought there would be at least two days to have fun with friends.

SG: Not at all. I went for a film shoot to the outer suburban area and there was an audition for it too.

M-C Hill: The one for ‘grayish tale,’ right?

SG: Yes, yes.

M-C Hill: One thing Ozzy [MASU collection sales] said about ‘grayish tale’ was about you going back to the creation of prep and American vintage. We often think of preppy style coming from ‘The Americana.’ Was the show a mashup redefining no, restating to fashion, ‘This style started with us.’ Is it also that undercurrent of your love for vintage clothes? Your obsession also with being correct and making sure research is housed in its correct, nomenclature?

SG: It's freer than that. There is the base in American vintage, and like, a tradition. In this modern age, you can do more with it, you can be more free to do what you want. So it was my take on making it more free, adding more playfulness to it.

M-C Hill: You are opening up the spectrum, the parameters, of how people understand vintage in a conventional way. In that case, could it be argued the collection is along the lines of your expanding the parameters for what we attach meaning to? Something we talked about two months ago was the word ‘boy’ in that idea of MASU Boy's Club. Your ‘boy’ is not only the male teenage self or the male teenage figure. It is also the female figure. It is also non-binary. Is the collection closer to your own social collage, your own spectrum versus the broad ‘This is vintage. This is Japanese vintage.’?

SG: Exactly that. Exactly what you said. Expanding.

M-C Hill: We talked about your [4-year-old] son two months ago and you wanting a more open-minded world for your son to exist in than the world we grew up in. In a romantic way, is this whole MASU/Shinpei version a love letter to your son?

SG: [Laughs] So every season, every collection, I have that in mind. Not just my son, but everybody's future. I keep the Boy’s Club idea in mind for you, for me, for everyone. Including my son.

M-C Hill: What about Kensuke Ishizu’s influence on this collection?

SG: Kensuke is the first one who brought Western fashion into Japan. He's the designer who made us like Ivy League styles. Kids in the 1960s were wearing his Ivy League clothes for regular, everyday life. He defined the fashion and brought it to Japan. He had this brand called VAN JACKET that became really popular in Japan.

What I find interesting is that this VAN JACKET, Ivy League style of fashion was kind of radical at the time. These kids were very fashionable, edgy. Their enthusiasm made it so. As the days went by, edgy fashion became ordinary. Now preppy fashion is done by straight people who want to be ordinary. Some people accept it, some deny it and some destroy it. That fashion conversation has been going on for some time. That is how fashion evolves. For the past few years it hasn’t happened. Whatever comes into fashion as a new trend just becomes popular, for everyone. There is no one who denies it. There is no one who destroys it. What I want to do is consider lots of possibilities for fashion. I want to kind of destroy whatever is here now, with love, to make fashion evolve.

M-C Hill: Does that account for bias cuts, the kinda slash and burn reworked ways to wear preppy clothes? You used the popcorn shibori style for a rugby polo. And then made dresses, for lack of a better term, out of Harringtons. And then skirts out of Polo necktie patterns. So your way to destroy with love creates a new definition for edgy.

SG: What I mean by destroying it with love is I try to understand first. I take values that already exist into my process with detail. I try to understand everything and maintain whatever is good about it. Keeping that goodness there, I start to play, and add whatever I like into it. So that goes with rugby, Polo, argyles, sweaters and neckties.

M-C Hill: You have a big time romantic way of seeing the world, gender, seeing clothes and incorporating playfulness into design. Our audience isn't quite familiar with Shinpei Goto and MASU. Can you talk through the runway show, how you decided to stage its themes and execution?

SG: The title is ‘greyish tale.’ That came from a meeting conversation, ‘Let's doubt white, like, very white or very black. Let's question that.’ There is something like, in between. That's a very gray-ish way of thinking. I wanted to observe something indirectly. Not from in front, but kind of from the side. That is where the title came from.

M-C Hill: I knew it! You always operate in this observer role! It’s never central. It's never like ‘The world is always this way!’ Your mindset sees a multitude of ways. Gray immediately felt like an exploration for the way that the world really is. Totally knew it!

SG: I’m happy to hear that. The show itself was pretty straightforward. Ivy style already has a style there. I didn't want to add too much to it, so it remains easy to understand. Also thinking about the MASU Boy's Club concept, I wanted a wider range of fans, or the people that represent my brand. I wanted to hire older guys to do the runway.

M-C Hill: MBC is very democratic. I guess the word is plurality, and plurality means multitudes. And so by adding older boys into the mix, that increases the universal mindset of operating MBC.

SG: Of course! If I only cast teenage boys, people would think that MASU is only for young boys. Whatever I make is very genderless and for any age, any country. I wanted to show that so people could easily understand. As an atmosphere and location, I wanted to show a happy feeling this time, a nice feeling. Paris in June has a really nice atmosphere. The last show was kind of dark.

M-C Hill: Yes, it was. It was great!

SG: [Laughs] I wanted to make a change. A big, extreme change from the past show to this one. This time, the image is a lot healthier, happier and a lot lighter. Those high ceilings gave the feeling of openness. Also with people sitting down on the curb like that. In Japan, young people tend to gather and sit on a little ledge or on a curb to drink and talk about stuff. So I wanted to create that kind of atmosphere — being with friends, just hanging around. So the audience was sitting very low. To come out in the end with a bicycle was what I had in mind from the planning. The bicycle part is a creation from the 70s or 80s. There was a very famous drama in Japan about an enthusiastic, nice teacher. It was a school drama. And this teacher who had a bicycle had children following him along the river. That was an homage. In the end, I went outside. And that was the surprise, to go outside and be freer. That image was the message I wanted to give.

M-C Hill: Did Azusa’s [Azusa Nozaki, fashion show coordinator] head explode when you and the models ran outside?

SG: [Laughs] I secretly told her beforehand.

M-C Hill: Can you talk through the narrative for the film? The short film for ‘grayish tale’ looks like a French film interspersed with runway highlights from the catwalk ‘grayish tale.’

SG: This time we didn't actually film the show itself because nobody, like, watches the show film over and over.

M-C Hill: No, I watch your show films over and over!

SG: [Laughs] M-C, you're a really rare case. A lot of people don't watch the show itself. [Laughs] They see the pictures, but not the films because it takes too long. So the director of the film and I talked about it saying, ‘Let's doubt what the real runway show is like.’ We wanted to do something since we were going to Paris, that you can only do in Paris. So we took the people and the language of Paris into the film. We wanted to show what the brand is to people and what it stands for.

M-C Hill: If you don't speak Japanese nor understand French, you obviously go through the visual. Every time you begin to understand the narrative, like, it gets interrupted with the fashion show. And that effect is the hammer on the nail. This is still fashion. These are still clothes.

SG: Very happy to hear that. Thank you.

M-C Hill: In a more thoughtful way to explain it is to think of strategy. Like, with Transformers, you have the Autobots versus the Decepticons. And the Decepticons strategise with a dark heart. The Autobots strategise to the best results for mankind to also survive. I guess in a less emo way to explain it, your heart is an Autobot.

SG: [Smiling, laughing] So with that in mind, I'll watch The Transformers again.

M-C Hill: How does MASU keep this momentum going?I know the Tokyo Special Prize is only for two shows. Is there a way to manipulate the system with good values to like, make sure you keep showing in Paris?

SG: At the moment, I am not thinking about doing another show. Maybe the show is not the most exciting thing. There could be something a lot more fun. Maybe I'll do something in Japan. Maybe it could be in Paris too. I don't know yet. About momentum, I don't exactly think there needs to be momentum all the time. I want to use June, the Paris experience to learn from. I don't know yet. If there is something I do in Japan or in Tokyo, you'll come, right?

M-C Hill: If I am able to cover Tokyo Fashion Week, I do not want to cover Tokyo Fashion Week if there is no Shinpei.

SG: [Laughs a lot]

M-C Hill: Have you ever watched Dogtown and Z-Boys and Lords of Dogtown?

SG: Yeah, I love those movies. I tried skateboarding, got hurt, so I stopped. [flashes the wound from his wrist].

M-C Hill: Ohhhhhh! Did it break?

SG: Not a fracture, but a lot of blood.