Japan is a fashion dream, especially for a brand so unremittingly fuelled by tribes and subculture as KOMAKINO. You can’t fault the teenage dedication of Japanese youth, who live and breathe the world of the clothes they dress in. That fully-formed purity of identity is a dream for any designer.

The label’s pilot Federico Capalbo took over Tokyo’s Candy store last month with SOUNDOBLIVION, an installation addressing special K’s AW13 collection inspired by the unity and euphoria of 90s dance culture. Or utopia set to a beat, if you like. Here Capalbo tells us about the trip as we share photography from the event…

“The AW13 collection was, in a way, referencing a certain rave scene from the 90s where there still was, I believe, a sense of ritualistic liberation through dance and drug culture. That is what mainly fascinated us about it I think.

Japan in general, and Tokyo in particular, is possibly the country I’ve had the occasion to visit the most, and more often outside of Europe. There is something extremely chaotic yet calm and intimate about how life is perceived and develops there. I think a certain extreme approach to things definitely belongs to KOMAKINO as well.

Their approach and the dedication the young Japanese have in general to a certain style and aesthetic has something of religious devotion in it. It is like total commitment. At the afterparty we played a lot of Vatican Shadow, Cut Hands mixed together with Throbbing Gristle, Coil…

I also went to see Keiji Haino performing, who I’ve seen before but never in Japan. It was particularly intense. The same night my friend brought me to a very hidden live house in Koenji, where the walls were covered with Hello Kitty stickers and this punk in his 40s was badly playing his guitar. All he sang about was vegetables – he also offered some to us. It was quite fucked up, I loved it.”