JUN TAKAHASHI MEETS ULTRAMAN - THE UNDERCOVER UNDERMAN
UNDERCOVER SS11 - UNDERMAN
Jun Takahashi always has us on the tip of our toes when it comes to his collections & the stories behind them. For his UNDERCOVER Spring/Summer 2011 Collection, he created his own fictional character, UNDERMAN, and based the collection around it. UNDERMAN's purpose is to rescue souls of people who have had them taken away by evil forces.
The collection's slogan was as follows:
"The year is 20XX. The world, in which the souls of the people have been incapacitated by the forces of evil, is empty.
UNDERMAN is born to restore these lost souls.
The battle against sorrow wages on.
UNDERMAN!!!!"
The UNDERMAN project went from idea to reality when Jun Takahashi, photographer Katsuhide Morimoto, and art director Tetsuya Nagato put their minds together. The three worked together to not only create the collection, but also to take photos at rocky locations using explosives, very reminiscent of Japanese hero shows.
Knowing Jun's love for toys and figures [see his Hambuger Lamp, Gilapple, and bear figures], it comes to no surprise that UNDERMAN also became a physical action figure. Teaming up with Medicom Toy / @medicom_toy , UNDERCOVER released 3 iterations of action figures for their SS11 collection, each a different character from UNDERMAN.
UNDERMAN being based off of one of Jun's favorite Japanese childhood heroes Ultraman, the collection & lookbook had heavy Japanese sentai-hero influences. The love for Japanese classic hero shows seems to never die, with Shin Ultraman set to air in 2021 and Shin Kamen Rider set for 2023. Check out some of the images from the wild UNDERMAN collection above.
