A Great, British Subcultural Story — As Told by UNDERCOVER
UNDERCOVER’s music-obsessed founder, Jun Takahashi, is no stranger to the pull of British subcultural movements.
Namely, the punk movement, whose dress was defined by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, has been formative for the designer (before founding his brand, Takahashi sang in the punk tribute act the Tokyo Sex Pistols).
For UNDERCOVER’s Pre-Fall 2025 collection, the designer once again explores the British subcultures, mainly focusing on mods and punks — two distinct, undeniably influential movements.
The mods, first established in the ‘60s, are famous for their specific way of dressing: three-buttoned blazers, slim Italian-inspired tailoring, buttoned-down shirts, and military outerwear are the foundations of their uniform. Design features found across UNDERCOVER’s Pre-Fall 2025 collection.
But then, there are also spiked studs, rows of safety pins, and bondage pants in the collection, famously punk sartorial choices.
Beyond their British-ness, there is some overlap between these two movements. In the late ‘70s, a mod revival was sparked by a youth faction looking to align with something other than the punk movement.
"After the punk thing had happened, two-tone music suddenly exploded and people were dressing a little bit Mod-ish. Mod had this kind of revival through Ska music in the late ’70s," David Keyte, founder of the brand Universal Works, previously told Highsnobiety.
"I saw some of the kids around my estate who wanted to be two-tone Mods wearing parkas. There were people on scooters in Oxfam suits and parkas thinking they were in Quadrophenia." (If you haven’t watched Quadrophenia, it’s a defining Mod film.)
With his latest collection, Takahashi relives this time in British youth culture, also touching on the skinhead movement that developed at this time, most notably through bomber jackets.
And he does this only days after presenting a rock music-inspired Fall 2025 collection in Paris and under two weeks after the release of an UNDERCOVER x Levi’s collaboration.
Only a month into UNDERCOVER’s 35th anniversary, the brand is launching collections at a rapid rate.
