Mood board: Fashion shows have a reputation for being a touch froid, with front rowers and models alike barely breaking a smile. Issey Miyake’s show – the first of womenswear designer Satoshi Kondo – shattered such perceptions. The designer’s theatrical, euphoric and energetic catwalk show, was aimed to provide a ‘sense of joy’ equivalent to ‘the ease we feel when a breeze caresses our face’, something that the brand’s easy, movement-encouraging and technically innovative clothing encompasses.
Kondo split his show into a series of acts, with a live electronic performance provided by DeLaurentis. Here, models appeared in bright parachute-like nylon dresses and cagoules, which ballooned around their bodies as they span or skateboarded down the catwalk, or were suspended from the ceiling in twirling arabesques sporting fluid dresses. Elsewhere, they crossed each other serenely in groups, clad in huge papery sunhats, shawl coats and T-shirt dresses in desert tones or Matisse white-and-blues, hand painted with people in a warm embrace. It was hard to find a single unsmiling face in the audience or on the catwalk.
Best in show: The motion in Miyake’s catwalk shows alert the audience to the technical skill hidden inside each piece, as they appear to bob or glide along the runway. For Kondo’s ‘Panorama Colour Pleats’ section models looked to the ceiling, where circles of colourful fabric hovered overhead. These were lowered onto their bodies and transformed into brightly colour blocked pleated dresses, which bobbed energetically as models danced and jumped in time with each other on the runway.
Finishing touches: With a 77-look show swathed in colourful, hand painted or technical pleated fabrics focus was bought into the collection with a series of comfortable shoes, culminating in slip on pumps or flip flops with chunky teeth like soles. §
