The Japanese designers keep the creative flame of Paris burning bright. Junya Watanabe, one of this special group's top stars, stoked the fire even more this season with a wildly imaginative collection based on collaging. Watanabe started with circles, cutting up suede, patent leather and tulle into round spheres and then stitching them all up again to create fascinatingly artistic tunics, dresses, and capes that billowed with back volume. The surfaces later swelled into 3D formations created by rhomboid, square and diamond shapes, and then abruptly deflated into flat prints on leather. These were worn with oversized shorts, or asymmetrical skirts, and paired with platform lace-up oxford shoes with short white socks. With their hair bound into swim caps and their heads squashed into plastic helmets, there was something almost retro space age about this collection. But one can never put a Watanabe collection into such a tight, descriptive box. The pops of acid bright colours created a circus-like flavour, while the models luscious red lips had been taped together as if the designer were declaring that there was no need for this woman to open her mouth; her clothes, after all, could and would do all the talking.
