# ดรอปสองจาก NEEDLES FW26: Poly Smooth, Heavy Twill, Sulfur Dye Duck จากโตเกียว

**By Onion** · 2026-10-14

## One Old Loom in a Japanese Mill

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The side stripe on a pair of Needles track pants is not woven on an ordinary machine. The mill in Japan runs the loom slower than it should, so the fibres come out looking already used, closer to wool than to sportswear. That fabric comes off one aging machine. If it breaks, the cloth cannot be made again.

Drop two of Needles Fall/Winter 2026 decides to play with that stripe itself.

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Needles is Keizo Shimizu's label, based in Tokyo, launched in 1997 under the Nepenthes roof he had already been running for nearly a decade. The track pant did not arrive with the brand. It came later, in 2008, after Shimizu found an old pair in Berkeley with five side stripes instead of three and went home to make his own. Nobody bought them at first. He wore them instead of jeans for close to ten years before anyone followed. Even the butterfly was born on those pants and only became the brand's logo afterwards.

Shimizu has said he picks the colours first and builds the collection around them. This FW26 drop gets three: navy, purple, black. But the real change is not the colour, it is the distance between the body and the side stripe, pulled closer together until the garment stops announcing itself from across the street. Sitting beside it in the same drop is the opposite approach: the Frisco Jacket in heavy twill, an apron pant in sulfur-dyed duck, sweatpants that arrive faded and worn on purpose. Two ways to make clothes look lived in. One removes contrast, the other adds wear.

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> Turn the stripe down one notch and the thing everyone recognises becomes the thing you have to look at twice: that is what this drop does.

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The Track Series runs to six silhouettes this season, the pleated skirt included, which is meant to be layered over the pants rather than instead of them.

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A garment that got famous for a stripe is asking, this year, for a second look.

**Tags:** Drop 2, Feature, FW26, Needles, Track Series

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> Source: [onionbkk.com / Onion](https://onionbkk.com/blogs/blog/needles-fw26-drop2)