Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2010

Gut’s Dynamite Cabarets got off to a raucous start at the Autumn/Winter 2007 edition of Japan Fashion Week. The Tokyo-based brand’s runway show was every bit as outrageous as its name was nonsensical, featuring bodybuilders, transvestites, transsexuals, models of indeterminate gender and blaring disco remixes, all held at an ungodly hour in the morning. “We were trying to make our shows like a party in order to get people to come and take notice,” says Cabaret Aki, who together with Jackal Kuzu makes up the brand’s design team. What started as strictly a source for outré men’s underwear has since evolved into a full-fledged apparel brand for men and women, and the pair have begun to display a newfound maturity and seriousness in their approach. The Autumn/Winter 2010/2011 collection is cast mainly in black, with occasional purple, silver and metallic accents, and the designs lean away from flamboyance in favor of something more sophisticated. Aki and Kuzu have even branched out by creating a new brand, JhonAG, whose designs take inspiration from Italian chic and Spanish flamenco but are made with locally produced textiles. “Japan still hasn’t established its international status as a center of arts and fashion, and we would like to help it improve in those areas,” says Aki. “We use our existing brand to express the showy brilliance and fun of fashion, and we want to use JhonAG as a way to show the appeal of techniques and intelligence that are available in Japan.”

www.g-d-cabarets.jp