AIGLE’s latest collaboration comes with a very big boot.
Just recently, AIGLE launched its LIFEPROOF collection, expanding its outdoor wardrobe from the countryside into the city. Now, the French brand is going in a different direction, teaming up with Satoshi Kuwata, founder of Setchu and winner of the 2023 LVMH Prize.
Together, they take AIGLE’s functional vocabulary — fishing gear, utilitarian clothing and technical materials — and run it through Kuwata’s much more tailored approach.
And once again, the boot is the main character.
There seems to be just one boot design, but it is enough. It comes extremely high up the leg, with a huge, wide opening that almost creates a V-shape around the calf. On some versions, an oversized bow sits across the toe, while others leave the shape completely clean. The result is a boot that feels very different from AIGLE’s usual rainwear..
It’s also the only place where the oversized feeling really takes over. The clothes themselves aren’t particularly huge or exaggerated — the boot is. Paired with the more controlled tailoring, it gives the collection a slightly unexpected proportion without making the whole thing feel oversized.
From Fishing to Fashion
Kuwata started with something that actually makes sense for AIGLE: fishing and utilitarian clothing.
The collection takes the practical details you’d expect from outdoor garments — pockets, protective elements, modularity and technical fabrics — and puts them into cleaner, more tailored silhouettes.
The colour palette follows the same direction. Olive, brown and beige pull directly from camouflage and the landscape, while dark navy appears across some of the more military-looking tailoring.
There are no neon colours or obvious attempts to make the clothes scream “outdoor.” Instead, the references are buried in the details.
Meet Satoshi Kuwata
Kuwata has spent his career moving between very different sides of fashion. Before founding Setchu, he worked with names including Givenchy, Edun, Kanye West and Gareth Pugh, while also developing his tailoring skills at H. Huntsman & Sons on Savile Row in London.
Setchu, which he founded in Milan, is built around the idea of making elegant clothes for an active lifestyle — pieces that can actually move between the city and the outdoors.
For Kuwata, that starts with instinct rather than a fixed silhouette. He is known for folding paper in his studio and looking at how light and shadow move across the creases, an approach that eventually translates into the construction and shapes of his clothes.
That origami influence also makes its way directly into the AIGLE collaboration. The collection introduces A-shaped pleats, a redesigned logo with an origami detail and Setchu’s take on AIGLE’s signature double stripe. The A-shape becomes one of the recurring details throughout the collection, appearing across tailoring and technical pieces.
Technical textiles, matte and structured surfaces and Polartec elements keep the collection connected to its outdoor origins.
So while the silhouettes might be exaggerated, the clothes haven’t forgotten what they’re supposed to do.
AIGLE brings the outdoor expertise. Setchu brings the tailoring and the slightly obsessive approach to shape. Somewhere between the fishing jacket and the oversized boot, the two meet.
The AIGLE by Setchu collection is available in an intentionally restrained palette of black, beige and khaki — basically the colours you’d expect if you dropped the collection into the woods and asked it to camouflage itself.
Except for that boot.
That one is definitely not hiding.
