There haven't been great and groundbreaking collections during New York Fashion Week so far, but there was a fairy tale story involving gargantuan organza gowns and Marc Jacobs' Madison Avenue store.
The tale revolved around Japanese costume designer Tomo Koizumi who until four weeks ago created pieces for performers and entertainers (he did one a couple of years ago for Lady Gaga as well when she visited Japan). Stylist and LOVE magazine editor Katie Grand was introduced to his work via Giles Deacon and started following the young designer on Instagram.
Koizumi recently posted new images of his creations, huge and colourful organza designs that catch your eye for their density and colours.
Grand couldn't resist and promptly got in touch asking if they could do a show. Koizumi didn't need to be told twice, he packed his colourful confections in three boxes and flew to the Big Apple. Grand managed to organise him in record time a show: she ensured he got a space in Marc Jacobs' headquarters on Spring Street where he could revive his gowns after his trip; then she secured the venue, got Guido Palau for the hair and Pat McGrath for the makeup, plus top models and actresses (including Rowan Blanchard, Emily Ratajkowski and Gwendoline Christie) for the runway.
From 2,000 followers, Koizumi's Instagram account went to 25,000, but it must be said that before Katie Grand stumbled on Koizumi's works, Sara Maino from Vogue Italia had visited Coconogacco, a Tokyo-based private fashion school last October and had spotted Koizumi's work, posting it on Instagram.
During New York Fashion Week, Koizumi's surprise runway became the sensation show of a season that seemed marred by the absence of some of its most famous designers and brands as Calvin Klein decided not to do any shows after Raf Simons departed in December, Rodarte showcased their new collection in San Marino, Los Angeles, and Thom Browne decamped to Paris.
Koizumi's models went down the shop staircase in enormous multi-coloured designs – some new, others from his personal archives (do a quick scroll through his Instagram and you will realise some of these designs or early versions of them were made around two years ago) that at times made them look like exotic birds.
A shocking pink heart emerged from one mini-dress; some designs had bulbous shapes that seemed to cocoon the models, others turned them into giant carnations, or seemed to swallow and suffocate the models with their ruffles (see the final coat, matched with a pair of pink ruffle flared pants that may have been edited from the show).
There is actually technique behind these dresses: Koizumi graduated from the National Chiba University in 2012 and then focused on costume design, but he doesn't have a team of assistants (he enlists students from Tokyo's Bunka Fashion College when he needs a hand).
The designer employs more than 50 shades of Japanese polyester organza (he claims there are 400 colours in these pieces, which may as well be true) and quite a lot of fabric - between 50 and 200 meters to be precise. He makes the ruffles first, then machine sews them and uses these pieces to make his designs. There is not much technique behind his patterns, as they are based on simple geometries so that a circle with holes for arms and legs can be transformed into a wearable sphere.
The final aim of the designer is creating a ruffle armour for the wearer, something inspired by Japanese characters à la Sailor Moon (impossible not to think about Creamy Mami as well for Koizumi's connections with pop stars...), combined with Balenciaga's architectural shapes, Galliano's extravagant pieces for Dior, Lee Bowery's costumes, abstract paintings and hanawa, Japanese funerary wreaths decorated with plastic flowers.
In a way the final effect wasn't completely new: in the last few years we have seen light and cute materials such as tulle becoming very trendy thanks to Molly Goddard's childish tulle frocks; Giambattista Valli and Viktor & Rolf often employed tulle to create striking Haute Couture pieces (you may remember V&R's S/S 2010 tulle collection, or the latest S/S 19 Haute Couture collection that featured gowns of leviathan proportions emblazoned with Insta slogans), while Junya Watanabe has provided us with more original interpretations of classic tulle gowns.
Technique-wise Tomo Koizumi's densely packed topiary-like polyester ruffles call to mind the soft pink laser cut tulle dresses from Hussein Chalayan's "Before Minus Now" (S/S 2000) collection, or the more recent tulle coats and dresses seen on Valentino's Pre-Fall 19 runway staged in Tokyo last year.
Koizumi's designs surely do not pass unnoticed on Instagram as they are visually appealing and, as soon as you see them, you want to click on the image and get lost in their cloured ruffles. Yet if that's the reaction they trigger, you easily realise that, to become famous, known or acknowledged by the fashion elite, nowadays you may first and foremost need visual power, while other skills may become secondary (and, frankly that's a bit depressing if you consider there may be very valid and talented designers out there who may not be noticed as their garments and accessories may be well constructed but may not be immediately visually appealing).
Will some of these pieces be adapted for off-the-runway looks? Who knows, even though you can bet there may be a capsule in the Marc Jacobs' T-shirts designed with Hey Reilly in 2018 featuring Lady Liberty smiling re-purposed with organza ruffles on the sleeves.
So what was the point of this show? Well, first of all Koizumi's dream and crazy designs brought a bit of much needed optimism to a country that has seen only darkness since Donald Trump became US President; second, it diverted the attention from the lack of extravagant and mesmerising shows on the New York Fashion Week calendar.
Besides, Koizumi's vast rainbows of joys re-shifted the discourse onto hand-made pieces in a fashion capital that has forgotten how to make things by hand. Fun and punk, they anesthetized editors and the rest of the fashion circus in New York who may be heading to London and may have to face Brexit depression (not to mention decamping to Milan and experiencing Italy in recession ruled by a far right wing government in denial, and then moving to Paris with the gilets jaunes and social unrest...). In a nutshell, the collection wasn't certainly the work of a genius, but, for the time being, Koizumi and his acid greens, sky blues, shocking pinks and fluorescent yellows, saved NYFW and filled the hearts with temporary happiness and exuberance, and that was no mean feat.
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