"Many small shadows come together to make one powerful thing," Rei Kawakubo stated in the notes describing Comme des Garçons's A/W 19 collection, entitled "The Gathering of Shadows".
The message was as cryptic as usual: if shadows symbolising dark and evil powers come together, the results would indeed be devastating; yet if a quiet and poetic shadow comes out of the darkness, the results may be intriguingly beautiful.
In a way that's what the designer may have had in mind, at least when you consider the moods of the runway show for this collection, that was showcased during Paris Fashion Week.
Soundscapes included military effects evoking wars, helicopters, machines and maybe chaotic voices of dictators, plus a choir of children singing "All things bright and beautiful / The Lord God made them all". Maybe Kawakubo had in mind a post apocalyptic world, destroyed by climate change, divisions, violence and wars (the slogan "No War" appeared on tartan pants after all).
The models on the runway wouldn't have looked out of place in such a world: quite a few of them wore sculpural pieces, there was a bubble-like skirt (or was that a bomb?) here and a quilted top with elongated sleeves there.
Some designs seemed armours with emphasised shoulders or harnesses that distorted the hips and created such awkward shadows that they could have been the costumes for a gloomy versions of the Triadisches Ballett, while the hoods, reinventions of the Red Riding Hood-like headdresses seen on Comme des Garçons' S/S 15 runway became even more unsettling and threatening.
Vinyl elements pointed maybe more at ecological disasters like oil spills rather than fetish; romantic dresses covered in bows, ruffles and three-dimensional embroideries may have been inspired by Victorian mourning attires.
For what regards the palette, an intense shade of violet broke the black monotony, while tartan injected instead a healthy dose of Kawakubo's trademark punk moods in the collection.
There were several explorations of shapes and proportions, but Kawakubo has always been interested in the representation of the human body after it is distorted by unusual forms and in this case the human silhouette seemed deconstructed and altered by shadows that engulfed the models, at times oppressing them.
Exaggerated shoulder plates and hip constructions expanded or disfigured the body, even though underneath you could glimpse perfectly wearable items, from a top and skirt made with a felt fringe to perfectly wearable ruffled dresses.
A sense of future dystopia was represented by the inventive materials employed for this collection, including a bubble-like textile, industrial vinyl and pleather, that contrasted with random golden baroque embellishments such as knobs and decorative cherubs (removed from interior design pieces found in a post-apocalyptic landscape and used as decorations?).
Maybe they hinted at a (not so distant?) future in which real fabric may disappear and people would be forced to wear garments entirely made of recycled plastics.
At the every end of the runway show all the malignant and sinister darkness faded away: models gathered in a circle, their bodies facing inward and looked at a bright light coming from up above.
Were they witches engaged in a secret ritual to destroy the world? Were they human beings in search of new hopes? Was this a final scream of despair before salvation, a way to exorcise the darkness and find again beauty? We will never know. But what's for sure is that, as usual, there was food for thought on the runway, rather than just clothes. The oracle has spoken, now it's up to us to decode the message.
Comments