John Lawrence Sullivan’s SS27 Goes Backstage At Berlin Fashion Week

Arashi Yanagawa Turns Backstage Into A Study In Beautiful Tension

Dig into thee backstage action. John Lawrence Sullivan’s Spring/Summer 2027 lineup arrived at Berlin Fashion Week looking sharp enough to cut glass, but the real electricity was happening before the runway: clipped hair, flushed eyes, lacquered leather and models waiting inside that strange little pocket of calm before fashion turns into spectacle.

Designer Arashi Yanagawa titled the collection Androgyny, building it around bodies and clothes that refuse tidy opposites. Strength meets fragility, discipline tangles with impulse, and masculinity and femininity stop behaving like separate rooms. The result is not genderless beige minimalism. It is precise, sensual and just dangerous enough.

Presented as part of INTERVENTION VI, the collection looked to photographer Bettina Rheims’ 1990 portrait series Modern Lovers and its images of people living beyond prescribed roles. Yanagawa carries that idea into boat-neck tops, skirt-like shorts, heeled shoes, military-shirt proportions and womenswear pulled through traditionally masculine codes.

The textiles keep pushing the argument. Raschel lace, net tulle, crushed velvet, patent finishes and reptile patterns move across the body like competing instincts. Snake and lizard motifs become a second skin, while straps extending from tailored jackets and coats turn restraint into part of the silhouette rather than something hidden beneath it.

There is also a distinctly Yanagawa tension between boxing-ring discipline and nightclub decadence. The Tokyo label was founded by the former professional boxer in 2003, and that history still lingers in the controlled stance of the clothes: shoulders squared, waists pulled, surfaces polished, every model looking prepared to either walk thee runway or start a beautiful little riot.

Backstage, photographer Sasha Zhu catches the collection before the performance fully locks into place. A casting board sits in view. Hair clips remain attached. Photographers interrupt a model’s pose. That unfinished energy makes the clothes feel even more alive—less museum object, more character waiting for the lights.

Inside John Lawrence Sullivan’s Spring/Summer 2027 Backstage

Press through the full backstage selection for closer looks at the metallic tailoring, sculpted leather, reptile textures, strapped suiting and pink-shadowed beauty created for Berlin Fashion Week.

Backstage photography by Sasha Zhu for FY Magazine! Styling by Jordan Duddy; hair by Dushan; makeup by Kenny Campbell.

From the first slick coat to the final crouched portrait, this is John Lawrence Sullivan doing what the label does best: taking the codes we think we recognize, binding them together and sending them back out with sharper teeth.