For a label aimed at breaking down the boundaries between real and unreal (that being the inspiration behind its unusual name), Kunihiko Morinaga’s Anrealage was true to its ethos this season. A believer in fashion tech if ever there was one, Morinaga played tricks with the mind, using photochromic fabrics that changed color as the models walked down the runway. Wasn’t that white dress almost black just a moment ago?
The chimeric effect would not necessarily have been easily readable had not Morinaga demonstrated backstage before the show, shining a torch on a white dress with geometric motifs sewn on by hand, turning parts of the futuristic fabric black as if scorched by the light, a trick that was also particularly effective on his macramé shift dresses.
The futuristic bent was contrasted with a strong focus on embellishment and craftsmanship. Boxy-yet-feminine dresses in a transparent fabric were adorned with hundreds of color-changing buttons, balls and studs. Elsewhere, standouts included a series of jackets with structured top parts — in denim or gabardine, for example — that poetically, gradually morphed into trapeze shapes in transparent polyester on their lower halves. Incongruous as this may sound, the effect was well orchestrated and decidedly less
Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.Read More…