Fashion didn’t always come with instructions, but now it reads like a codebook. Denim means labor. Argyle means privilege. Velvet means taste. These associations aren’t natural—they’re just habits that calcified over time.
MASU exists to break that spell.
The Tokyo-based label treats fashion history like something you can flip inside out. Smooth surfaces turn sharp. Symbols lose their assigned power. What looks familiar suddenly feels unstable. It’s not shock for shock’s sake—it’s a reminder that these rules were invented, and they can be undone.
Designer Masayuki Hori learned this early, sneaking into his grandmother’s closet as a child and dressing like a rock star, believing—correctly—that clothes could make you anything. That sense of freedom has since been squeezed by algorithms, hierarchy, and late-stage capital. MASU doesn’t mourn it. It works around it, speaking directly to the people still paying attention. Think of it as a soft riot: quiet, sweet, and deliberate.
The clothes look purposefully disrupted. An argyle sweater with its hem missing. Velvet stripped of polish. A bandana-patterned silk handkerchief. A floral formal suit turned into a spiked zip-up. Tracksuits overloaded with buttons. Tweed jackets bloom with clover-shaped details. Preppy symbols get stitched onto cropped denim. Nothing stays in its lane.
Materials clash. Colors fade. Patchwork, wear, and emotional residue are treated as design features, not flaws. A sword chain becomes a charm. Leather bags are made to carry comic books, not status. Even in a bleak world, MASU insists, small things can still shine.
On December 28 in Tokyo, a thousand MASU BOYS gathered for MASU BOYS LAND: THE END OF 2025, an intimate preview of the Autumn/Winter 2026 collection. No distance, no spectacle—just shared space, chance encounters, and dialogue.
MASU is critical but affectionate, rebellious without being cruel. It validates the quiet, ordinary feelings most people carry. And in doing so, it sketches another future.
YES TO THE BOY.
A rebellion already in motion.
words Alexa Wang
