Undercover is celebrated for bridging high-concept Japanese subversion with punk music, cinematic obsession, and surrealist art. Founded in 1990 by Jun Takahashi (famously known as "Jonio") while studying at Tokyo’s prestigious Bunka Fashion College, the label began as a DIY streetwear brand heavily inspired by The Sex Pistols, Vivienne Westwood, and Tokyo’s underground Urahara scene. Takahashi, alongside A Bathing Ape founder NIGO, opened the legendary NOWHERE boutique in Harajuku in 1993, cementing Undercover at the absolute epicenter of Japanese youth culture.

Encouraged by Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, who became an early mentor and proponent, Takahashi expanded Undercover beyond graphic streetwear into complex, runway-driven collections, debuting in Paris for Spring/Summer 2003 with his seminal "Scab" collection. Takahashi’s design ethos operates under the motto "We Make Noise, Not Clothes," systematically taking dark, dystopian themes, sci-fi imagery, and classic subcultural uniforms (such as leather biker jackets, MA-1 bombers, and fishtail parkas) and reinterpreting them through intricate distressing, raw processing, and surreal graphic collages.