At London Fashion Week, Apu Jan transformed the runway into a living folktale. His Spring– Summer 2026 collection, The Extraordinary Voyage of Captain Peach, merges East Asian myth and contemporary reflection—a meditation on imagination, courage, and human connection in the digital age.
Inspired by Momotaro, the classical Japanese legend of a boy born from a peach, Jan recasts the story as a metaphor for modern existence. Thirty-three looks emerged from more than one hundred designs, each constructed to explore the boundaries between time and self. His signature fabrics— custom jacquards, featherweight chiffons, and translucent knits—carried literary fragments within their weave: handwritten letters, “Read” receipts stitched into sleeves, timestamps marking unseen conversations. The ghosts that haunted these garments were not of folklore but of the online world— echoes of attention, desire, and doubt.
Color moved in lyrical transition. Peach and coral shifted into midnight indigo; cloud-white linens framed sculptural tailoring. The designer’s collaboration with NIKE introduced the Ava Rover, Air Superfly, and Air Max Muse, grounding the ethereal narrative in motion. APUJAN’s partnership with Asian film art directors extended that world beyond fabric—traditional and abstract masks appeared as modern “ogres,” urging viewers to confront chaos with imagination.
Music became storytelling’s final thread. Nichiharu Hibito (DJ so lonely) performed Captain Peach in Acid Folk Dreams, layering Lo-Fi textures, toy keyboards, and digital rhythms that reshaped Momotaro’s melody into something haunting and new.
For Apu Jan, fashion remains a literary act—each garment a sentence, each collection a novel. The Extraordinary Voyage of Captain Peach continues his pursuit of fantasy as resistance: the belief that wonder itself is a form of courage.
Creative credits
- Written by
- Juliette Roth
- Photography
- Chris Daw
- Runway production and creative direction
- APUJAN Studio
- Music performance (DJ so lonely)
- Nichiharu Hibito
- Footwear collaboration
- NIKE
- Art direction and mask design
- Asian cinema creative team in collaboration with APUJAN
