Coco Chanel might have been proud

Junya Watanabe is not easy to pin down. Michelle Obama might love wearing his cardigans but he is just as reluctant to speak about his work as his mentor, Comme des Garçons' Rei Kawakubo. Both occupy a position that decrees that their designs speak for themselves. That is not unreasonable. If there is a single characteristic that runs through Watanabe's output, however, it is his ability to transform the clichéd  and even ubiquitous into something more interesting by nature.

He does so on a six-monthly basis, for women and also men. A year ago now, Watanabe turned his attention to the masculine trouser suit, as ever, ingeniously crafted to suit the feminine form. Last season, he looked to army-green rib-knits, cottons and camouflage prints for inspiration, and to spectacularly romantic effect. His current collection, meanwhile, takes as its starting point the nautical reference that is as central to the summer wardrobe and the French summer wardrobe in particular as strawberries and cream are to Wimbledon. In his hands it is transformed into something as sartorially discerning as it is sweet, as considered as it is considerate of the modern woman's sartorial requirements.

In fact, and following on from his menswear show in Paris in June, Watanabe would say only that the women's collection was a study of "stripes". With its Breton-style knits, sailor pants and prints featuring anchors, sailing ships, bunting and more, it's safe to say that the staples of life on the ocean wave were also on the designer's mind.

Given the complexity of Watanabe's pattern cutting, while light, feminine and easy to wear, the pleating, looping and draping of silken fabrics fused with cardigans, T-shirts and shorts with more than a passing resemblance to Edwardian swimwear is no small technical feat. And while far from indebted to the French bourgeois tradition, there's more than a touch of Biarritz, circa 1916, to the look, too brought up to date in a manner of which even Coco Chanel might have been proud.

The great lady herself was famously photographed on the beach at Deauville, with her dog Gigot, and wearing striped jersey and sailor pants. It's an upbeat, footloose and fancy-free style (as thoroughly befitted a freshly emancipated time) and one that soon came to signify Riviera chic, the sporting good looks of the 1920s and the happy optimism of the photography of Jacques Henri Lartigue.