Daisuke Obana’s aim with N. Hoolywood’s Test Product Exchange Service collections is to adapt military-inspired garments “for town use.” Yet should you go to meet friends in the brand’s safety-yellow hooded topper, or a track suit-ish look with pockets and adjustable cord pulls, they might think you had dropped out of the sky or just returned from a mission. It’s not for nothing that the helmeted and goggled models in the lookbook use parachutes as props: TPES’s fall lineup borrows, once again, from the gear of pararescuers, who are equipped with elements like harnesses and padding that allow them to move freely and safely.
You could look past the bells and whistles and take N. Hoolywood’s gray track-suit at face value, ditto with the cargo pants, but the context matters. In this climate, preparedness might be all. Just last week, Sweden’s Civil Defence Minister and Commander-in-Chief urged people to be prepared for the worst. “My ambition with this [announcement] is not to worry people; my ambition is to get more people to think about their own situation and their own responsibilities,” General Byden said, according to the BBC. Obana seems to be of the same mind. “I think it’s essential for viewers to feel a sense of fear when watching the Test Product Exchange Service collection,” he wrote. “Given that disasters and emergencies can happen anytime and anywhere, it may be essential for ordinary people like us to have basic knowledge and understanding….yet, the best thing is for nothing scary to happen.”
