This season Anrealage’s Kunihiko Morinaga, who regularly plays with tech in his designs, pondered on the body’s outer surface and its capabilities for mutation.
Referencing “skin” as something that can be shed again and again, like an outfit, he nodded to animals’ fur and feathers, fish and serpents’ scaly carapaces, more human inferences like checks and polka dots, as well as digital avatars to be changed at will.
The opening looks, a range of second-skin bodysuits with psychedelic printed scales, yielded to familia clothing archetypes, though done in trompe l’oeil patchworks of fabric petals. These real-life lo-fi silhouettes nodded to denims, a varsity jacket or a sporty vest, for instance. Looks made with traditional Japanese washi paper had contrasting sequin details.
Then came the tech play Morinaga is best known for, with engineered novelties this season including color-changing 3D printed textured bustier dresses that changed color according to the angle of view like Op Art.
In another technological advancement, other looks were made using up to 2,000 3D E Ink paper scales that, unlike LEDs, emit no light and change color thanks to AI mapping. For the final look, this time featuring LEDs, Morinaga referenced the Phoenix rising, its body glowing with fiery light.
Morinaga’s 25th show in Paris coincided with the launch of a pop-up and retrospective exhibition in the city, for which Anrealage collaborated with Sarah Andelman as curator.
Starting Thursday on Rue de Turenne, the Just An Real Age pop-up will feature looks from all 25 of his Paris collections in three rooms, as well as an A to Z of 26 items and objects offered for sale, representing the alphabet and the overlapping A and Z of the brand’s logo. Another room features a soundscape from Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, a regular collaborator with the brand, with limited-edition vinyl offered for sale.
