Undercover by Jun Takahashi: history, Nike and sizing

Jun Takahashi started Undercover in 1990, while still a student at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo. He began with a friend and a few T-shirt designs.

Thirty six years later the same label shows in Paris, makes running gear with Nike and has had a museum retrospective. It still prints the T-shirts.

Quick facts

• Founded: 1990, by Jun Takahashi, born 1969 in Kiryu, Gunma
• First show: 18 April 1994, Tokyo Fashion Week
• Paris: from the Spring Summer 2003 collection, shown in 2002
• Prizes: the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix in 2001 and again in 2013
• Nike GYAKUSOU: from the holiday 2010 season
• Sizes: numbered 1 to 5, read 2 October 2026 on a 50 piece shelf at $70 to $2,840

Harajuku first

Takahashi was born in 1969 in Kiryu, in Gunma prefecture. He started Undercover in 1990 while studying apparel design at Bunka, according to the profile Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery published for its retrospective.

Grailed's 2016 profile names his classmate Hinori Ichinose as his partner at the start. Early Undercover was mostly tees and vintage pieces Takahashi customised himself with studs and patches.

With NIGO he opened a shop called NOWHERE, split down the middle by a wire fence, with Undercover on one side. The gallery calls Undercover "the leading brand of the Urahara movement in the back alleys of Harajuku."

The first runway show came on 18 April 1994, at The Garage in Daikanyama, during Tokyo Fashion Week. In 1997 the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix gave him its New Face Shiseido Award, and in 2001 he won the prize itself.

Paris, and the hand

The move to Paris came with the Spring Summer 2003 collection, shown in 2002, and the label "has shown in Paris ever since," the gallery says. That collection was called "Scab." Grailed describes strips of fabric layered into patchwork, then ripped and reworked by hand.

The collections that followed are remembered by their names. "But Beautiful," for Fall Winter 2004, used hand stitched collage pieces and a poem by Patti Smith. "Arts & Crafts," for Fall Winter 2005, made nearly every runway piece from felt.

"Anatomicouture," for Fall Winter 2013, built a white dress entirely from men's shirt collars. The same year Takahashi won the Mainichi Fashion Grand Prix a second time.

Menswear got its own division, Undercoverism, in 2001. In Japan the name Undercover alone refers to the women's line, Grailed notes.

"We Make Noise Not Clothes."

That is the label's motto. It shows in the side projects: the doll GRACE, a teddy bear with motorcycle lights for eyes, and UNDERMAN, a hero character for Spring Summer 2011.

Nike, Supreme and the collaborations

GYAKUSOU, the Nike line, began in the holiday 2010 season. The name means roughly "running in reverse," and Takahashi is a runner. The year before, in 2009, he had been special guest designer at Pitti Uomo 76 in Florence.

A Supreme collaboration followed for Spring Summer 2015, with the "ANARCHY IS THE KEY" graphic. A Uniqlo children's line, UU, let Takahashi design for his daughter, according to Grailed.

The current collaborations are smaller and stranger. On one Toronto shelf there is a Dickies x Undercover worker jacket at $795 and a shirt at $695. A Kijima Takayuki x Undercover bucket hat is $695, and a Grounds × Undercover sneaker is $995 in brown or black.

How Undercover sizes

Undercover sizes in numbers. Farfetch's style guide maps them as 1 for XS, 2 for S, 3 for M, 4 for L and 5 for XL, and calls that a guide only.

The same guide calls the trousers generally slim and suggests a size up, and calls the sneakers true to size. Measure a garment you own against the listing, because the cut moves from season to season.

On the shelf we read, the run is deepest in the middle. Of the sizes in stock, 18 listings carry a 3, 16 a 2, 10 a 5, 8 a 4 and 4 a 1. The Grounds sneaker comes in centimetres, 23 to 29, or EU 37 to 45.

What it costs in Canadian dollars

Fifty Undercover pieces sit at WDLT117, 7 St Thomas Street, at $70 to $2,840. The Undercover shelf lists them live.

The top is tailoring. A Prints padded jacket is $2,840, a Wool Languid jacket $2,700 and a tailored blazer $2,650. A Kasuri jacket is $2,350, and a felted wool long jacket $1,850.

The middle is knit and print. A mohair blend cardigan is $980, and a Cindy Sherman patch sweatshirt $960. Graphic tees run $295 to $550, and kids' graphic tees are $195.

The way in is small. A Teddy pouch is $285 in the small size and $445 in the large. Two enamel brooches, "But beautiful" and "The end," are $70 each, the first sharing its name with the 2004 collection.

Takahashi himself has said the label costs 40 to 50 percent more in the United States than in Japan, because of tariffs and operating costs. That line comes from the Rizzoli monograph, as Grailed reports it.

The St Thomas Street shop ships within Canada by Canada Post and UPS, and abroad by Canada Post, UPS and DHL, by its own policy. For the shop itself, read our note on the St Thomas Street shop. For the labels around it, read our Japanese designer brands note.

Common questions

Who is the designer behind Undercover?

Jun Takahashi, born in 1969 in Kiryu, Gunma. He founded Undercover in 1990 while studying at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, and has shown in Paris since the Spring Summer 2003 collection.

What is Undercover's collaboration with Nike called?

GYAKUSOU, a running line that began in the holiday 2010 season. The name means roughly running in reverse. Undercover has also made Nike sneakers under its own name, such as the Daybreak.

How does Undercover sizing work?

Undercover uses numbered sizes, 1 to 5. Farfetch's guide reads them as XS to XL and suggests a size up in trousers. Check the garment's measurements, because cuts vary by season.

Where can you buy Undercover in Canada?

WDLT117, at 7 St Thomas Street in Toronto, held 50 pieces on 2 October 2026, at $70 to $2,840, and ships across Canada by its own policy.

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