Anrealage's Kunihiko Morinaga continues his explorations in the realm of light and darkness and his research in light reactive fabrics in the S/S 16 collection.
Showcased at the Palais de Tokyo and very aptly entitled "Reflect", the collection focused on reflecting the existing reality to create a new one.
The theme was introduced first via the refreshments offered to the guests, welcomed by waiters carrying trays of glasses filled with water and sake.
The drinks invited people to go behind the appearances and consider different qualities, something reiterated via a pamphlet and the show notes explaining "Reflect a light – it gives a light (…) Reflect reality – It makes a new reality" and illustrating how to enjoy the collection.
Guests who wanted to change the perception of the various designs just had to take pictures of the looks: the photosensitive fabrics the garments were made of reacted to the flashes of mobile phones, revealing an entire new world.
The fun was definitely there as black dresses revealed a wysteria shade, while the white dots on a rigid black dress with a ruffled motif around the hem and the shoulder area unveiled a constellation in a galaxy far.
According to the show notes, these looks were actually an "official collaboration with the film Star Wars" and, if that's true, they could be the first desirable Star Wars fashionable designs not to feature another print of the Death Star (the luminous effects could actually have great applications on shirts and more wearable garments destined to the fans of the sci-fi saga).
Monotone shades and stripes revealed complex neon houndstooth check textures in dresses and trench coats; a basic day jumpsuit with architectural sleeves that formed a sort of cape-like structure on the back and was matched with two handbags stitched together via their bottoms (imagine putting a handbag on a mirror and you get the idea…) revealed a fancy sci-fi plaid.
The designer also came up with an ingenious take on the classic Chanel jacket: inspired maybe by the art of infinite tailoring he came up with a jacket that seemed to open and multiply in an optical illusion movement.
Knitwear definitely lacked the wow factor even when flashes revealed silvery turquoise stripes, but visual illusions came back towards the end of the collection.
The final part wasn't just about reflecting lights, but "reflecting" garments: men's shirts or bomber jackets were multiplied to create monumentally voluminous kaleidoscopic three-dimensional effects.
The final examples of kaleidoscopic tailoring also lit up, revealing more colourful patterns, geometric prints and textural effects.
Kunihiko Morinaga played with the garments and the patterns as if he were creating wearable Fortune Teller origami.
All the looks were matched with eyewear inspired by the Inuit bone or wood goggles that protected the wearers from snow blindness and allowed them to see better in bright light (the goggles actually created a great comparison/juxtaposition: snow blindness manifests when the sun shines on an expanse of snow and is caused by the reflection of ultraviolet rays, in this case the blindness wasn't caused by the light reflecting on the snow, but by the camera flashes).
It will be interesting to see how some of these effects will be appplied to actual clothes and how this concept will move from conceptual runway to the wardrobe. Last but not least, it will be intriguing to see where designer Kunihiko Morinaga will go from here.
This collection may not be new for all those ones who may have seen the previous experiments and may be feeling that Anrealage's presentations are becoming more about trickery than fashion.
Yet again there are good points in this collection: the designs were indeed developed together with a company specialising in recursive reflective paint (mainly used for markers and signs at construction sites). Looks like experimenting to find innovative fabrics is definitely the way forward in the fashion industry.
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