Continuing adidas and Yohji Yamamoto’s renegade exploration of elevated sportswear, Y-3’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection focuses on the concept of Contra-Natural – a world in which the duality between the organic and the synthetic produces unexpected beauty. With visceral juxtaposition as its ethos, the collection offers a nod to the delicately poised tension at the heart of the Y-3 brand: adidas’ legacy of sporting innovation coming together with Yohji Yamamoto’s elegant, avant garde, aesthetic philosophy.

From concept to execution, the ideological collision of the natural and the artificial manifests in a bold, collection-wide, color palette. The brand’s signature pantones are all present – Y-3 Black, Solid Gray, and White – but this season they’re complimented with Clay Brown, Mesa, Shadow Red, and Mint. Staying true to the collection’s thematic impetus, the quartet of new colors takes inspiration from the process of oxidation, with nature taking over metal, turning rusty burgundy into an acidic mint.

The apparel selection features an array of daring cuts, sophisticated tailored garments, and expressive silhouettes. The first seasonal drop is highlighted by pieces adorned with a digitally distorted floral graphic composed from scans of real flowers. The second seasonal drop, meanwhile, plays host to a selection of refined workwear inspired garments with cotton twill fabrications, cargo pockets, and adjustable hems, as well as reimagined takes on the iconic adidas Superstar Tracksuit featuring topographical map piping. The collection’s final apparel drop is replete with pieces in summer-ready colors and is highlighted by a selection of garments inspired by adidas’ Teamgeist soccer jerseys which were first introduced at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Seeking to recontextualize the sporting inspiration, each piece features a digital rust print which stays true to the natural process of oxidation.

From apparel to footwear, Y-3 continues to push the boundaries of form and function. Drop one focuses on expanding the brand’s array of adidas Originals icons, subverted through the lens of Yohji Yamamoto. New silhouettes include the Y-3 STAN SMITH and the Y-3 COUNTRY – made up in collapsable premium leather with piped details – and the Y-3 GSG9 LOW. Drop two, meanwhile, features the return of the brand’s most progressive silhouette to date – the Y-3 GENDO – as well as the introduction of the Y-3 S-GENDO RUN, which takes the high-top silhouette, adds a Pebax plate, slims down the profile, and introduces an outsole which features a contrasting floral graphic and sporting tread. In this pinnacle silhouette, the past fervently collides with the future as vintage adidas running styles are infused with the brand’s most innovative approaches to design. Drop two also plays host to the return of the Y-3 KYASU in both low and high top executions, as well as the introduction of the Y-3 KYASU SLIP-ON which takes the silhouette’s minimal brick-like midsole and adds a stitched on primeknit upper. The footwear selection is then completed in drop three with the Y-3 WATER SLIDE, the Y-3 SANDAL, and an update to the instantly recognizable Y-3 ITOGO which sees the silhouette’s straps swapped out for an engineered print.

Rounding out the collection, Y-3 takes the seasonal thematic focus, and applies it to highly adaptable
accessories. Highlights include: drop one’s soft leather tote bags, wallets, and card holders which feature a distorted floral graphic, drop two’s nylon backpacks, totes, and holdalls, and drop three’s beach towel bag which boasts fully detachable components.

A distinctive vision of uncompromising sporting elegance, Y-3 Spring/Summer 2024 subverts expectations through bold juxtapositions and daring contrasts.

Published by Asia Lanzi